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The Pear Avenue Theatre’s latest show, “Nickel and Dimed,” is a timely dissection of the American class system, politics and feminism as told through a journalist’s exploration of the working class. More exactly, it’s about one woman’s struggle to get by on minimum wage in a world that seems set against her.
Based on the best-selling book — “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich — the theatrical adaptation of this sociological treatise is a clever and entertaining take on the nonfiction work. Adapted by playwright Joan Holden (formerly of the San Francisco Mime Troupe) and running through Nov. 9, the play unfolds in episodic form as we watch Ehrenreich’s character — an award-winning writer and social activist — divest herself of all her upper-middle-class trappings as she ekes out a living earning minimum wage. The play shows her working a variety of different jobs — house cleaner, waitress, retail employee — as she details with wit and intelligence the dismal prospects of her new life, and the exacting physical and mental toll of her labors.
Ehrenreich is played with gusto by Patricia Tyler, who deftly encompasses the duality of the character as she walks back and forth between her world — that of the Ivy League and well-paying writing assignments for Manhattan-based publications — and the working class worlds of Florida, Maine and Minnesota. Throughout her experiences, Tyler plays the character as warm and funny, someone given to compassion for the people around her and outraged at the near impossibility of surviving on so little.
In this simple and pared-down production, Tyler tells us with heartbreaking honesty how difficult and unsavory she finds the work, and the testimony is punctuated by many funny and telling moments as she navigates the busy lunch shift at the local “Kenny’s” restaurant or scrubs bathroom floors in an affluent suburb. In its way, “Nickel and Dimed” strikes a chord similar to the sarcastic and satirical treatment of national politics in shows like “The Daily Show”: the realities of injustice are delivered with a scathing wit that allows us to laugh instead of cry.
But the central message of “Nickel and Dimed” is deadly serious, and if my fellow audience-goers felt like I did watching at a recent Sunday’s matinee, it also seemed terribly relevant as the nation prepares for a new president and a changing political scene. At one point in the show, in fact, the actors break character and directly address the audience — breaking the “fourth wall” in theater speak — in an attempt to get us to think about our own lives and our positions in society.
“Nickel and Dimed” is a thought-provoking and unique theatrical experience that adds an interesting voice to the national debate on class and politics, one less interested in party affiliations and more in helping those whose lives can be unbearably difficult. It’s an ambitious project, but The Pear’s high-quality acting and commitment to the material makes us take to heart the ramifications of its content.
INFORMATION:
What: The Pear Avenue Theatre presents “Nickel and Dimed,” by Joan Holden
When: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. — last show is this Sunday, Nov. 9
Where: 1220 Pear Avenue, Unit K, Mountain View
Cost: $20/general, $12/students and seniors
Info: Call (650) 254-1148 or visit www.thepear.org for more
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