In CLYDE’S, a stirring new play from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and her frequent collaborator, director Kate Whoriskey (Ruined, Sweat), a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and permission to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich. You’ll want a seat at the table for this funny, moving, and urgent play. It’s an example of Nottage’s “genius for bringing politically charged themes to life by embodying them in ordinary characters living ordinary lives” (The Wall Street Journal).
The full creative team for Clyde’s includes scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Christopher Akerlind, sound design by Justin Ellington, original compositions by Justin Hicks and casting by The Telsey Office.
Clyde’s is supported by the Art for Justice Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and by Terry and Bob Lindsay, with additional support provided by American Express.
Nottage, a Pulitzer winner for the more weighty topical dramas 'Ruined' and 'Sweat,' maintains her interest in illuminating the lives of working class people, but shifts strategies here into broad comedy. The setup has a sitcom quality that's paradoxically inviting, not dissimilar to 'Orange Is the New Black,' for which Aduba won two Emmys; it's easy to imagine stopping by Clyde's every week, with a steady swinging door of short-order cooks working toward rehabilitation. The comedy is situational in both structure and execution, with personalities, incidents and drool-worthy sandwich descriptions making up a bulk of its substance.
'Clyde's' is a battle between the saint and Satan. Rather than treating this extreme contrast as a flaw, Whoriskey embraces it to bring a magical realism to the production. The performances, however, are never as sharp as they are in those first few squabbles over the cutting boards. Only Aduba is able to build on her horrible first impression, and that's because the devil, once again, gets all the best jokes, not to mention couture that would make Kyrsten Sinema blush.
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