Clyde’s
Second Stage Theater
The Helen Hayes Theater
December 29, 2021
Photo courtesy of Second Stage Theater
Lynn Nottage successfully steps into a new genre
with her play Clyde’s. It is bold
and funny, yet still packs Ms. Nottage’s signature strong social message. Director Kate Whorisky finds the pace and energy
to keep the action moving. The cast
brilliantly creates larger than life characters who carry a vivid sense of
vulnerability and humanity.
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| Uzo Aduba & Ron Cephas Jones Photo courtesy of Second Stage Theater |
County, Pennsylvania.” Montrellous (played by Ron Cephas Jones) urges Clyde to up the quality of the sandwiches in order to get more attention for the restaurant. Clyde refuses to taste his handiwork. Montrellous trains the other kitchen workers, Raphael (played by Reza Salazar) and Letitia (played by Kara Young), to create new sandwiches with scrupulously chosen ingredients. When Jason (played by Edmund Donovan) is hired to work in the kitchen, the creative momentum is thrown off. Jason has recently been released from prison and is covered with white supremacist tattoos. One by one each character reveals their incarceration history. This is what they all have in common. They desperately need their jobs at Clyde’s to get their lives on track, yet Clyde brutally keeps them all in place. When a customer demands relish on one of Montrellous’ gourmet sandwich creations, all hell breaks loose.
The Full Cast of Clyde's
Photo courtesy of Second Stage Theater
Uzo Aduba is a powerhouse as Clyde. Her character makes dramatic entrances
throughout the play, surprising and terrorizing the kitchen staff. She is extreme and overbearing. She pushes each one of her workers to the
edge. Just as it reaches a high point,
Ms. Aduba softens and backs away, making you think there is a heart within her. She then returns even more full of fire.
Ron Cephas Jones is poetic and calming as Montrellous. Reza Salazar is dynamic as Rafael. Kara Young is a ball of energy as Letitia. Edmund Donovan portrays Jason like a bomb ready to explode. These skilled actors create characters with a burning desire to get out of the confines of their circumstances. They are people who made mistakes in their past. Their stories are complicated and touching. You yearn for them to break out of the restrictions Clyde callously imposes on them.
In this play, Ms. Nottage uses the kitchen of the sandwich shop to represent the limitations people put on themselves for past mistakes. Clyde is the power that holds them down, whether it be the voice within or societal and economic challenges. As each character forgives themselves, they move on, releasing themselves from Clyde’s demoralizing control.
The Second Stage Theater production of Clyde’s is a MUST SEE. It is playing at the Helen Hayes Theater through January 16. Get a ticket today!
Domenick Danza
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