These employees work in an auto stamping factory. We are given the impression of the repetitive nature of the jobs by the clever device of having a muscular performer, Adesola Osakalumi, going through assorted dance movements at the start and between scenes, accompanied by staccato projections suggesting a repressive factory atmosphere.

The interplay between characters that is dramatized reveals the personalities of the individuals and the problems they encounter individually and collectively.

The set, designed by Michael Carnahan, simulates a room where the workers go to have their break, drink coffee, tend to their lockers and chat. We meet the veteran employee Faye, who is the union representative. As played by Lynda Gravatt, she is sharp-tongued but in a friendly, up-front way, and ultimately we learn what her hard-knock life has been like. The foreman, Reggie, is played by Wendell B. Franklin. He’s in a precarious position. He knows that there will be an imminent loss of jobs, and he is caught between trying to do right by the workers and look out for his own position.

Shanita, a spirited young woman expecting a baby, is portrayed by the excellent Nikiya Mathis. Dez, strongly performed by Jason Dirden, has a rebellious streak and ambitiously hopes to build a life beyond the factory. But he is prone to trouble, and is revealed to have come to work packing a gun.

Little by little we get to know each of the five characters better, thanks to the way in which playwright Morisseau structures the work and provides precision to the dialogue and interaction. Always there is the underlying truth of the economy gone sour, and the workers caught in the cauldron of trying to survive.