Skip to content

PoCo native in Canadian premiere of Sweat

Ashley Wright portrays Stan, the bartender in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
ashley
Port Coquitlam secondary graduate Ashley Wright (centre) portrays the bartender, Stan, in the Arts Club Theatre production of Sweat, which opens Thursday at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

“You could wake up tomorrow and all your jobs are in Mexico,” warns Stan, the bartender in Sweat who’s portrayed in the Canadian premiere by Port Coquitlam native Ashley Wright.

Indeed, Stan’s words are a precursor for his friends in the dying town of Reading, Penn., in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play that the Arts Club Theatre opens Thursday.

Wright’s character of Stan is the sage of the blue-collar circle, having worked in the steel mill for years but left four years prior after sustaining an injury.

“His perspective is quite interesting,” Wright told The Tri-City News today (Monday). “He sees the writing on the wall. He acts as kind of a counsellor and tells them, Maybe it’s time to move on. This place isn’t what it used to be.”

Lynn Nottage’s fictional account of the group came from real-life interviews the playwright conducted in 2011, after Reading was classified as one of the poorest cities in the U.S.

Last year, it received three Tony Awards nominations and scooped the Best Play accolade.

Wright said the everyday struggles of middle-class America are similar to what’s happening north of the border, especially as a result of the current trade disputes.

“It’s as much an American story as it is a Canadian one,” Wright said. “What’s happening down there is happening up here as well; these characters are not from Nottage’s imagination.”

Still, since 2011, Wright said Reading has managed to get back on its feet despite losing 20% of its manufacturing base — some of it to Mexico — and adapting with other industry.

And Wright said he’s pleased to be reuniting on stage with fellow actor Anthony Santiago, who plays Evan/Brucie in Sweat; the pair once worked in Edmonton on an all-male version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and, in 1998, on Of Mice and Men.

After the Vancouver run, Wright said he’ll return to the Alberta capital — where he now calls home — to remount Sweat with the show’s co-producer, Citadel Theatre.

Directed by Valerie Planche, Sweat runs at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage (2750 Granville St., Vancouver) until Nov. 18. Visit artsclub.com for tickets.

jcleugh@tricitynews.com