by Mike Hoban
Skeleton Crew – Written by Dominique Morisseau; Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian Scenic Design by Wilson Chin; Costume Design by Ari Fulton; Lighting Design by Adam Honoré; Sound Design by Nathan Leigh. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont St., Boston, through March 31.
Most of us know what it is like to compromise our ideals to some degree in the workplace, whether we’re working in a boardroom for a large corporation or slinging burgers in a fast food joint. The nature of everyday workplace life often requires us to make ethical decisions that place job security and/or advancement above our personal ideals and dreams, and it only becomes more difficult to do the right thing when the stakes are raised to a level that will directly affect our ability to survive.
It is the winter of 2008 – the beginning of the Great Recession – and we are in Detroit, in the break room of a sheet metal stamping plant that makes parts for Ford cars. There is no government bailout yet in sight, and the workers are hearing rumblings that their factory will be the next one to close. The American Dream has been on life support for some time in this city, and for the workers, the economic meltdown may signal the end of life as they know it. This is the combustible setting for Dominique Morisseau’s riveting working class drama, Skeleton Crew, now being given a powerful staging by the Huntington Theatre Company.
Skeleton Crew focuses on the lives of three auto workers and their supervisor, each of whom stands to lose big if the plant closes. The chain-smoking Faye (Patricia R. Floyd) is nearing retirement and needs to finish out the year to attain 30 years of service, which ensures a far more livable retirement package. She is also the union rep for the shop (as well as the cranky voice of reason for her younger workmates), but she is also grappling with a number of issues of her own, not the least of which is breast cancer. Shanita (Toccarra Cash) is the model employee, loves the auto industry, and takes great pride in her work, as we learn when she describes the hum of factory machinery as being “like harmony. Like life happening. Production. Good sound.” She is also about six months pregnant, and has a strained relationship with her baby’s father.
Dez (Jonathan Louis Dent) is also good worker, but is (rightfully) skeptical of both the company and the union, so he’s been taking as many overtime shifts as possible to raise enough money to open his own repair shop. He’s also relentless in his pursuit of the affections of Shanita, who deflects his mostly comical flirtations in this pre-#MeToo environment. Reggie (Maurice Emmanuel Parent) is a success story, having risen through the ranks to a supervisory position without the benefit of a high school diploma, and has done well enough to buy a house in suburban Detroit. Despite his management position, he too fears job loss.
The relationship between Reggie and Faye is multi-layered. Not only does he represent management (which requires him to squash rumors of the imminent plant closing), while Faye represents the workers’ interests, but he is the son of Faye’s best friend, now deceased. The two struggle with how to best minimize the damage to the lives of the workers with the potential plant closing, while also saving their own skins. Skeleton Crew brilliantly recreates the fear and impending doom that the economic collapse inflicted upon the world, and brings it to a human level through these well-drawn characters. Morisseau is a good storyteller (despite some less-than-convincing rhapsodizing of workers’ feelings towards the union and the auto industry) and has a great ear for everyday dialogue as well as the play’s dramatic explosions.
Floyd is spot on as the world-weary Faye, who is there for everyone else, but can’t accept help when her own life goes off the rails. Parent beautifully conveys the turmoil of a man torn between loyalty towards his extended family and co-workers while trying to maintain his shaky foothold on the path to a middle class life. Cash convincingly tempers Shanita’s enthusiasm for work and life with a healthy fear for her future, and Bent is terrific as the authority-challenging but emotionally vulnerable Dez. Set designer Wilson Chin creates a beleivable universe for the workers, including a highly detailed break room (right down to the Ford Mustang poster hanging on the beat up fridge), and his revolving stamped sheet metal doors and work fans in the background are a stroke of brilliance.
Director Megan Sandberg-Zakian continues to impress (IRNE and Norton Awards for 2016’s The Convert at the Underground Railway Theater and an IRNE nomination this year for the spectacularly clever production of The Royale at MRT), eliciting strong performances from her able cast and finding the proper balance between the humor of the piece and its weightier components. Skeleton Crew serves a stark reminder of just how fragile life in an increasingly unstable world can be, and how that uncertainty can challenge our ability to do the right thing. See it. For more information and tickets, go to: www.huntingtontheatre.org
