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For many, the nightmare of trying to survive on low wage jobs just about anywhere in America remains just that, a nightmare. One person who’s lived to tell what it’s really like to try to live on a little over $5 an hour is journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.” 

The book recounts her struggle to make ends meet working at Wal-Mart, as a waitress, a maid and at other jobs on the fringes of our economy. Published in 2001, it became a runaway bestseller—and now it’s been turned into a play of the same name. 

“Nickel and Dimed” opens Saturday night at Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. 

Commissioned by the Seattle-based Intiman Theatre Company last year, veteran San Francisco Mime Troupe playwright Joan Holden, a Berkeley native, was chosen to adapt the book for the stage. Holden has written and collaborated on over 28 of the Mime Troupe’s left wing political shows, usually held in Bay Area parks. Longtime Mime Troupe actress Sharon Lockwood, who lives in Berkeley, plays the Ehrenreich character. 

Ehrenreich found out the hard way that you can’t make it on $5.15, the minimum wage in 1998 when she did her research. “You can eat, but you can’t pay your rent. You have to have two jobs or you have to be sleeping on somebody’s couch or your husband or boyfriend has to be working to make it. But to make it on your own on one low wage job is not possible in America,” says Holden.  

While that conclusion may come as no surprise, the alienation Ehrenreich experiences on the job in low wage America should. 

“It’s this constant—not only deprivation, but constant immolation and really fascistic alienating work environment with ridiculous rules. Drug tests and interrogations and constant suspicion that you’re stealing,” says Holden.  

“She (Ehrenreich) finds that what it’s like to work for a giant chain like Wal-Mart run by assistant managers according to rules that are from some far away corporate headquarters—it’s a really alienating working environment where workers are consistently disrespected.” 

While Holden’s version of “Nickel and Dimed” is true to the original, for the purposes of whittling the book down to a play the other actors joining Lockwood on stage take on multiple rolls to create over 35 characters. Featured cast members include Julia Brothers, Elizabeth Carter, Cat Thompson, Cristina Anselmo and Darren Bridgett. The play also boasts a jazz score performed live. 

“Nickel and Dimed” has been performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and most recently at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on what Holden refers to as the affluent Peninsula. But even there, the play’s message may be having an impact. 

“About halfway through the run one of the actors was in the café outside the theater and asked the girl there if she’d seen the show yet and she said ‘No, I haven’t seen it yet, but something’s definitely going on cause our tips have tripled.’ That’s trickle down. But that makes a difference in people’s lives,” says Holden. 

Ultimately Holden would like to see the play have an effect on efforts to increase the minimum wage. Right now it’s $6.25, but there are ballot initiatives in San Francisco and elsewhere to raise it from $9 to $10. At discussion groups held after the play, many in the audience are saying they had no idea about the problems of low-wage workers. 

“What are these people going to go out and do? You only hope that maybe they won’t have such a knee jerk reaction to living wage legislation when it comes around,” says Holden. “The next time somebody says it’ll ruin the business climate you go wait a minute, Wal-Mart is not going to leave the country if it has to pay $9 an hour instead of $6. Sorry. Not going to happen.” 

While she admits that the reaction of the San Francisco audience may be akin to preaching to the already converted, Holden sees a place for that as well. “In Mountain View we were evangelizing,” says Holden. “So, if you take that metaphor of the evangelist there’s two jobs: one is to spread the word and the other is to do revivals for the faithful. The Mime Troupe in the park is doing revivals for the faithful, but that’s actually important work because the faithful will get very tired and discouraged. They need energizing. They need events that remind them why they care.” 

“Nickel and Dimed” runs through Nov. 9. Saturday night’s performance features an after-party with Ehrenreich. The Brava Theater is located at 24th and York Streets in San Francisco. For more information, call (415) 647-2822 or go to www.brava.org.