BWW Reviews: NICKEL AND DIMED Raises Awareness About the Lives of the Minimum Wage Work Force

NICKEL AND DIMED written by Joan Holden is based on the book "Nickel and Dimed, On (Not) Getting By In America" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Like the book, Holden's adaptation for the stage examines whether a middle-aged, middle-class woman named "Barbara" can survive when she suddenly has to make beds all day in a hotel and live on $7 an hour.

Ehrenreich's bestseller about Barbara's odyssey is vivid and witty, yet always deeply sobering. Joan Holden's stage adaptation is a focused, comic, but shadowed epic as Barbara realizes one $7 an hour job won't pay the rent so she'll have to do back-to-back shifts. The bright glimpses of Barbara's co-workers that enliven the play become indelible portraits as they gallantly wage their life struggles. Although written over ten years ago, the play shows us the life a third of working Americans still lead.

With the recent recession taking out middle-class jobs and the recovery replacing them with low-income jobs, the theme of income inequality is even more relevant in our current times with so many of us struggling financially. In 2012, 3.6 million workers earned the minimum wage with millions of others earning just a few cents or dollars more.

In reality Barbara is not really down and out, steps away from living on the street. As a writer and social critic, she has been sent out to see if she can live on minimum wage without the help of anyone else and then write an article for publication to educate others. So while she knows the situation is temporary for her, she certainly meets many others whose lives seem trapped in their low income circumstances.

What she discovers is that in order to make ends meet, put a roof over her head, clothes on her back and food in her tummy, Barbara needs to hold down three minimum wage jobs at a time as she travels around the country: a waitress at Kenny's Restaurant, a retail clerk at Mall-Mart, a hotel maid, a housecleaner for Magic Maids, and a caretaker at Woodcrest Residential Facility tending to the old and infirmed. At each location she is tormented by unreasonable bosses and befriended by her caring and poor co-workers.

Featured in the cast at the Hudson Theater are Veronica Alicino, Zachary Barton, Kathleen Ingle, Jackie Joniec, Carmen Lezeth Suarez, Johnnie Torres and Matthew Wrather. Each plays several roles in the episodes of Barbara's minimum wage life.

As Barbara, Zachary Barton often breaks character and speaks directly to the audience about her reaction to what is going on in her life at the moment. Her plaintiff "this is not my real life" as she tries to deal with rude customers at Kenny's Restaurant where the customers are told "making you happy is what we are all about." But in reality, no customers are ever happy, just overly demanding. A standout in these scenes is Johnnie Torres as Hector the Cook with a drinking problem.

Also noteworthy is Veronica Alicino as a pregnant maid with an out-of-work husband unaware of her pregnancy. Alicino will pull at your heartstrings as she struggles to stay at work through her morning sickness just because she needs the money. Barbara gives her a protein bar, offers to do her work for her, setting her straight on staying away from the cleaning fumes, and getting her to a clinic which only charges $10 for the visit so she can get medical attention. This episode was especially close to my heart as I understand putting off medical care when you cannot afford to see a doctor. As is repeated in the show, the less you have, the more everything costs you.

Matthew Wrather is a hoot as George, the Czech immigrant working in Kenny's as a busboy, a rich kid mouthing off about all his possessions while he co-workers have nothing, and finally as Howard the Supervisor at Mall-mart who tells it like it is. Kathleen Ingle shines as the Kenny's waitress and Mall-mart co-worker with a heart of gold as well as in her several of roles. Especially fun is watching all the characters run in and out during the epilogue, each relating what happens to them in the future after interacting with Barbara. I can only imagine the chaos backstage during these rapid costume changes!

The play is neither a comedy nor a drama. I'd call it a consciousness raising reality check worthy of your attention.

Bright Eyes Productions presents NICKEL AND DIMED
Written by - Joan Holden
Directed by - Richard Kilroy
Executive Producer - Bill Hemmer
Assistant Director - David Pascucci

THE HUDSON MAINSTAGE THEATRE located at 6539 Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. 90038 on Fri & Sat. 8PM and Sun. 3PM until August 25th)

For Reservations call (323) 960-5770
General Admission: $25.00
Reserve ONLINE at: http://www.plays411.com/nickelanddimed

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