"We Owe These People"
Playwright Joan Holden brings "Nickel and Dimed" to PTC
by
Monica Pace
It wasn't even her idea to begin with.
Yet when San Francisco playwright Joan Holden got a call from
Bartlett Sher, artistic director for Seattle's Intiman Theatre, she was
struck with a sense of purpose. In the half-dozen months that followed,
this sense of purpose would galvanize the politically-minded playwright
to action.
Sher had just heard a talk on public radio by journalist Barbara
Ehrenreich. She was discussing her new bestseller, "Nickel and
Dimed," which exposes the struggles of the minumum-wage worker. As
Holden explains in an interview, Bartlett Sher thought these findings to
be as dramatic as they were alarming: minimum wage earners are
"shockingly under-compensated" for the quantity and caliber of
work they perform. Holden recalls thinking that Ehrenreich's ideas were
"right on time . . . My life is subsidized by thousands of
people." Holden, who "found (her) voice" as a playwright
because of her opposition to the Vietnam War, found a voice in
"Nickel and Dimed" for those millions who can't speak up for
themselves, who "swallow their indignities." When asked of her
primary reason for adapting "Nickel and Dimed" for the
theatre, she looks to the real-life characters themselves, the
"real anonymous donors. We owe these people."
The Philadelphia audience was the first to experience the show in its
completely revised form. As Joan Holden notes, the script had to be
written in a few short months. Commissioned in March, the play was
slated to open in August. Yet it seems anything but hastily written.
Punctuated with sharp, poignant dialogue and a flurry of movement,
Holden transforms the repetition of everyday toil in "Nickel and
Dimed" and "leavens it with humor." She calls much of her
work "the stage equivalent of political cartoons" because of
the timely and often serious subject matter she portrays "using
humor as the medium."
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| Right to Left, Elizabeth Norment as the undercover journalist. Michele Vazquez and Paul Meshejian as wage slaves at a greasy spoon. photo, Mark
Garvin. |
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Holden relies heavily on numbers, facts, and figures to underscore
the journalistic style of Ehrenreich's work. For each of the three
minimum-wage jobs undertaken by main character Barbara, a job
description lights up on a marquee above the stage, accented by the
sound of a game-show style bell. The job is always menial (Kenny's:
$2.50/hr plus tips) and the salary always inadequate. The glib
arithmetic on the marquee belies the harsh reality of the scene played
out beneath.
Philadelphia Theatre Company's production of "Nickel and Dimed,"
in the intimate, cozy setting of Plays and Players Theatre, captures the
exhilarating yet firmly down-to-earth flavor of Holden's script. Six
actors are cast in an impressive variety of roles; even more impressive,
perhaps, is the complete metamorphosis of both character and costume. A
young, energetic fry cook in one scene is played by the same actor as
the arthritic cleaning lady in the next; a scurrying member of a
hotel-restaurant wait staff becomes an authoritarian store manager later
on. And when the stage lights dim between acts, the actors themselves
pull upon sliding panels to change scenes. Designed by Neil Patel, the
minimalistic set boasts a clean economy of line and reinforces the theme
of getting by with very little.
Then there's the matter of audience participation. At $40.00 a
ticket, this is hardly the sort of entertainment to be enjoyed on a
regular basis by the typical minimum-wage earner. So when house cleaners
suddenly break character and address each other by their real-life
names, the well-to-do audience itself becomes the target of social
commentary. Awareness is raised along with the house lights as one of
the actors admits to having hired cleaning help and asks the audience
for a show of hands. Predictably, there is a pause before a scattered
few pepper the crowd.
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Right to Left, Elizabeth Norment as Barbara and Michele Vazquez as sales
associates. photo, Mark
Garvin. |
Like Ehrenreich's book, Holden's "Nickel and Dimed"
concludes with protest rather than measurable solutions. Perhaps to make
it a bit more satisfying for the audience, each character speaks alone
on the stage about their lives after having met Barbara. With the
exception of one woman, who moves on to a better-paying factory job
under Barbara's suggestion, there are no sweeping changes in the
characters' lives. There is a sense that this is a cycle they will
repeat for the rest of their lives as long as there are mini-malls open
24 hours, tables to wait, and houses to clean. They resign themselves to
this fate by returning to work.
"Nickel and Dimed" will run through February 22nd. Tickets
can be purchased by calling the box office at (215) 215-569-9700. The
Philadelphia Theatre Company is located at Plays & Players Theater,
1714 Delancey Street, Philadelphia.
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