The theatre department brought Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat” to the main stage of the Anderson Center’s Chamber Hall this past weekend.

“Sweat” — a play set at the turn of the 21st century in the American Rust Belt — revolves around a community of factory workers at the Olstead steel factory in Northern Pennsylvania. Centered around friends Chris and Jason, the play confronts issues of labor organization and heightened racial tensions as waves of working-class people are laid off from their jobs and find themselves completely out of work.

The play, directed by Brandon Wright, an assistant professor of theatre, opened with Chris and Jason meeting with their parole officer in 2008. The men are returning home to Reading, Pennsylvania after spending the past eight years in prison and begin to reflect on the events that got them locked up.

Tracey and Cynthia — Jason’s and Chris’ moms, respectively — work the line together at the Olstead factory, and frequently get together at a local dive bar to knock a few back after work. Most of the play is set within the bar, where the characters discuss their fear of changing labor organization. Both families have generations of Olstead factory workers and feel threatened when full-time employees start getting laid off in favor of part-time, outsourced work.

Ally Restrepo, a senior double-majoring in theatre and environmental studies, played Oscar, the Colombian busboy who works at the bar Jason, Chris, Cynthia and Tracey frequent. Oscar ends up becoming the victim of Jason and Chris’ anger when he takes a job at the Olstead plant as one of the part-time workers replacing families that were shut out for refusing to compromise on compensation packages and benefits. Restrepo reflected on what it was like to work with such a complicated, heavy history, especially considering the prescient nature of the play’s thematic content, as well as her connection to playing Oscar.

“A lot of it was figuring out what parts of my own self and my own family I could put in,” Restrepo said. “And then how I could find new aspects and new places to tell a story. I’m the first generation of my family to be born in America.”

In consideration of local history, as Binghamton was also impacted by de-industrialization in the early 2000s, Restrepo mentioned the importance of approaching acting with delicacy.

Although a fictional story, “Sweat” reflected very real struggles people went through as factory labor organizations changed at the turn of the century. Alfie Massey, 22, of Binghamton, who played Chris, shared what it was like to put on a show that dealt with such heavy social issues.

“I think that is part of why I like doing heavier things is because I connect to them so much and people connect to them so much,” Massey said. “We’re telling the stories of real people, and especially doing it in Binghamton, which is a factory town taken over by a college — it feels very real and true and it’s an honor to portray that.”

The set was elaborate and colorful, and the stage team created an atmosphere that transported the audience back in time. During climatic events, the performance was overlaid with television broadcasts of the 2004 and 2008 elections, demonstrating the impact of shifting economic policies on these communities. The audience responded enthusiastically to the on-stage tragedy and early-2000s humor, and the actors were met with a loud round of applause when they took their final bow.