But let's be honest, if you do any research or don't live in a bubble, you already know there is a wage issue in America. Of course, she finds it damned near impossible. Try to live on minimum wages in lower class jobs in America. Problem is, there is no dramatic structure.
The play shows us the life a third of working Americans now lead, and makes us angry that anyone should have to live it. These characters wage their life struggles with a gallantry that humbles Barbara, and the audience. The bright glimpses of Barbara s co-workers that enliven the book become indelible portraits: Gail, the star waitress pushing fifty who can no longer outrun her troubles Carlie, the hotel maid whose rage has burned down to disgust Pete, the nursing home cook who retreats into fantasy Holly, terrified her pregnancy will end her job as Team Leader at Magic Maids, and with it her 50-cent raise. The worst, she learns, is not what happens to the back or the knees: it s the damage to the heart. Barbara is prepared for hard work but not, at 55, for double shifts and nonstop aches and pains for having to share tiny rooms, live on fast food because she has no place to cook, beg from food pantries, gulp handfuls of Ibuprofen because she can t afford a doctor for failing, after all that, to make ends meet or for constantly having to swallow humiliation.
Joan Holden s stage adaptation is a focused comic epic shadowed with tragedy.
Barbara Ehrenreich s best-seller about her odyssey is vivid and witty, yet always deeply sobering. This isn t the first surprise for acclaimed author Barbara, who set out to research low-wage life firsthand, confident she was prepared for the worst. But one $7-an-hour job won t pay the rent: she ll have to do back-to-back shifts, as a chambermaid and a waitress. Can a middle-aged, middle-class woman survive, when she suddenly has to make beds all day in a hotel and live on $7 an hour? Maybe.
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