A revival of Clifford Odets' 1935 protest play about Depression-era New York taxi drivers on the brink of a strike.
Waiting for Lefty is set in Depression-era New York City, where a group of exploited and exhausted taxi drivers have gathered to vote on whether to strike. As they wait for their union leader, the tension within the room builds, and the play moves between the present moment and a series of scenes drawn from the drivers' lives, building a collective portrait of workers pushed to a breaking point. Clifford Odets' 1935 one-act unfolds in a single space, staging the theatre itself as the union hall where the decision will be made.
This production marks the directing debut of actor Steven Pasquale, who incorporates music and movement into the staging to reframe the original work within a contemporary theatrical language. The revival uses Odets' classic text as a lens for examining the ongoing stakes of labor, solidarity, and the cost of speaking against power.