Clyde’s
Reviewed by Katie Buenneke
Mark Taper Forum
Through December 18
A word to the wise: eat, preferably a sandwich, before seeing Clyde’s at the Mark Taper Forum. After the show ends, you’ll be hungry, not just for food like Montrellous (Kevin Kenerly), the executive chef of the titular diner, describes, but for an artistic experience that’s more substantial than what you you’ve just seen onstage.
At first blush, Clyde’s, written by Lynn Nottage, is a story about a truck stop sandwich shop and the people who work there who want to make the shop into something transcendent. But, as the show goes on, the audience comes to realize that this is less like The Bear and more of a recidivism fable.
Clyde (Tamberla Perry) is the owner of the shop, which another character, Rafael (Reza Salazar), claims is a money laundering front, besides being home for Montrellous’ gustatory visions. She hires kitchen staff who are newly out of jail, thinking they are pliable and replaceable: Montrellous, who rhapsodizes about sandwich possibilities; Jason (Garrett Young) who is covered in white supremacist tattoos and still finding his footing following his recent incarceration (this is the same Jason found in Nottage’s earlier play, Sweat); Letitia (Nedra Snipes) who wants to care for her daughter and be cared for herself; and Rafael a young man with a deep heart and a tendency to act on his instincts. Together, the four employees form a support group to encourage each other to put one foot in front of the other and move forward, leaving the circumstances that surrounded their incarceration in the past.
The themes of the story are beautiful and sweeping, but this staging of Nottage’s text feels haphazard. Kate Whoriskey’s direction trips on sudden tonal shifts, varying from the broadest of comedy to deep, emotional introspection on a moment’s notice — but doesn’t span the short distance credibly. The script, cast, and direction all seem to be out of sync with each other. It’s hard to get a grasp of the characters’ wants and needs when they’re not talking about their pasts, which makes their choices in the moment feel unmotivated. This is most notable in Perry’s performance in the titular role, which never coalesces into a character who makes sense.
From a design standpoint, the show doesn’t seem to fit the space well. Many shows at the Taper take advantage of the vertical space the stage allows, but scenic designer Takeshi Kata curtains it down to a small window. I imagine Kata intends to convey a sense of claustrophobia, but the set ends up feeling too small, a feeling further conveyed by shortening the stage, omitting much of the forward thrust of the space. Christopher Akerlind’s lighting design is assertively pointed in a few moments, but so over-lit and flat the rest of the time that my eye wandered, accidentally missing important staging moments. Jennifer Moeller’s costume designs mostly worked, but Clyde’s flashy outfits felt out of place in a way that didn’t seem to add to her character.
Clyde’s is a play with grand ambitions, but I left wishing I had seen the story it wants to be, rather than the production we got.
The Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown; Tues.- Fri., 8 p.m., Sat.. 2:30 and 8 p.m., Sun., 1 and 6:30 p.m.; thought December 18. CenterTheatreGroup.org. Running time: 95 minutes with no intermission.
