Life is hard but reassuringly predictable for a tight-knit group of friends in blue-collar Reading, PA. On the factory floor and in the local bar, bonds are forged, drinks are downed, and gossip flows. But when layoffs and picket lines chip away at their trust, friends find themselves pitted against each other in a primal fight for survival.  From its slow-burn opening to its electrifying end, Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play confronts race, deindustrialization, and the ever-shrinking middle class with humor and heart.