Two of the Five Colleges’ season-ending productions, both by award-winning women playwrights, hark back to moments in recent history that continue to reverberate. Sarah Treem’s “When We Were Young and Unafraid” takes place in a remote backwater, while “Sweat,” by Lynn Nottage, unfolds in the industrial heartland. But they share themes of life-shattering violence — physical and emotional, economic and social — and the value of community.
