Waiting for Lefty

The drama Waiting for Lefty is a series of scenes that blend into a powerful mosaic of the American working class. We begin in a hiring hall where a union leader (obviously on the payroll of the bosses) is trying to convince a committee of workers not to strike – as they await their leader (Lefty) to arrive. Through flashback and vignette, we then visit a discouraged taxi driver in confrontation with his wife, who wants him to show some backbone and stand up to his employer; an employee promised a major promotion in exchange for spying on a fellow worker; a young cabbie and his would-be bride who lack the wherewithal to get married; and a senior doctor charged with dismissing a bright, promising intern. All together, this look at the American working class of the 1930s is considered one of the most celebrated and significant plays of mid-century American theatre.