Photo: Mikki Schaffner
(L-R) Maiesha McQueen, Shannon Dorsey, Michael Cornelius Chenevert, Austin Kirk and Juan Arturo in Clyde's at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
Lynn Nottage is one prolific playwright. Cincinnati theatergoers have had the opportunity to see her work on multiple occasions, including Intimate Apparel at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (2005), successfully adapted into a 2022 opera (with a development stop locally in 2016 by Cincinnati Opera). Her Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat was at ETC in 2022. We haven’t seen her 2009 script Ruined (2009), another Pulitzer winner, but she wrote the book for MJ the Musical, the national tour of which stopped at the Aronoff Center in September. She has an uncanny ability to dig into and portray meaningful and real characters, often people of color, while telling engaging stories.
That’s certainly the case with Clyde’s, currently onstage at the Cincinnati Playhouse. It’s about a set of previously incarcerated felons who have a second chance at life working at a truck stop sandwich shop in Reading, Pennsylvania. They’re all pursuing uphill battles to redemption, working for Clyde (Maiesha McQueen), the diner’s hard driving, demanding and thoroughly unsympathetic owner.
Their paths to better lives are metaphorically paved with slices of bread as they strive for perfection with that “most democratic of all foods,” according to Montrellous (Michael Cornelius Chenevert Jr.), a master at inventing mouth-watering combinations of materials for diners. “Two pieces of bread, and between,” he tells his three colleagues, “you can put anything you want. It invites invention and collaboration.”
Under his philosophical guidance are frenetic Letitia (Shannon Dorsey) trying to raise a daughter with a disability while making ends meet, romantic Rafael (Juan Arturo) who has a crush on Letitia, and Jason (Austin Kirk), full of fury and covered with white supremacist facial tattoos. Letitia is Black; Rafael is Hispanic. Initial indications are that Jason, newly added to the team, will not mix well. But under the sway of Montrellous’s gentle tutelage at the altar of sandwich-making — a roll-around kitchen prep table — these three troubled characters find ways to become better people, despite Clyde’s steady barrage of foul-mouthed criticism and demands for rapid production rather than aesthetic perfection.
Nottage’s script, truly a successful comedy, digs deep into some hardcore social issues. Everyone working in Clyde’s kitchen was incarcerated for some foolish, thoughtless action. Letitia broke into a pharmacy to steal medication her daughter needed. Rafael undertook a hapless, drug-laced bank robbery (with a BB gun) because he needed the funds to buy his girlfriend an expensive fancy dog. Jason lost his factory job and took out his anger with a baseball bat attack on a scab crossing a picket line. In prison, surrounded by gang members, he was marked with tattoos making him an object of shame and scorn in outside society. Montrellous’s story reveals a selfless act totally in keeping with his character.
Trying to make it after time in prison is a hard road but striving to be better — even if it’s via the medium of mouth-watering sandwiches — is what drives the action of this show. Nottage injects a lot of humor along the way, and each character has his or her moment in the spotlight as they become a more unified team and push back against Clyde’s mean-spirited oversight. She constantly snaps them back to earth when she sharply delivers an order and rings the service bell. In fact, this return to reality is cleverly underscored by lighting designer Harold F. Burgess II: As Montrellous waxes poetic the ambient lighting becomes soft and warm. When Clyde slams another order and pounds the bell, the scene snaps back to harsh fluorescent illumination.
Director Timothy Douglas has carefully shaped this story by giving each actor enough room to establish his or her character and then molding them into a unified ensemble who make progress toward personal pride in their work. Montrellous’s poetic, guru-like monologues about ingredients, attitude and the power of sandwich-making are quite miraculous. The on-again, off-again romance between persistent Rafael and guarded Letitia could be predictable, but it becomes part of the larger whole. And Jason’s redemption, revealing his better nature, is driven home with a humorously satisfying garnish.
McQueen plays a fearsome taskmaster, revealing just enough about Clyde’s own demons and economic forces to make her behavior understandable if not entirely sympathetic. With each entrance in a different outfit and a new wig, she is a maelstrom of cutting barbs and put-downs. And yet, we see that she has her own set of challenges that keep her fury boiling.
This production of Clyde’s plays out on a marvelously detailed diner kitchen designed by Se Hyun Oh with three roll-around prep tables, sinks, refrigerator, a grill, lockers, shelves with supplies, and a service window that Clyde haunts with her angry insistence on quick delivery without the fussy designs sprouting among her staff. When she enters the kitchen to set them straight, her intimidation sucks all the air out of their workspace. Overhead the restaurant’s glowing red-lettered, weather-beaten sign flickers and flares when the stage darkens for scene changes, often orchestrated with pulsating choreography by the actors, set to composer Matthew M. Nielson’s sound design.
Clyde’s is one of the most produced plays at America’s regional theaters this season, as it was a year ago. Cincinnati Playhouse is one of 14 to stage it during the 2023-2024 season. With veteran director Douglas helming the production, it’s surely one of the most satisfying.
Clyde's, presented by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park at the Rouse Theatre – Moe and Jack’s Place, continues through Nov. 5. For tickets, call 513-421-3888 or visit cincyplay.com.
Subscribe to CityBeat newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
"tasty" - Google News
October 24, 2023 at 04:12AM
https://ift.tt/2iS8WpO
Review: No Matter How You Slice it, 'Clyde's' is a Tasty Treat at ... - Cincinnati CityBeat
"tasty" - Google News
https://ift.tt/wK4tz2L
https://ift.tt/3Bsr5fq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Review: No Matter How You Slice it, 'Clyde's' is a Tasty Treat at ... - Cincinnati CityBeat"
Post a Comment