"Clyde's" at Berkeley Rep

 

Berkeley Rep production photo by Kevin Berne or Muriel Steinke

A new play by Lynn Nottage is always an exciting thing. She's won numerous awards (try two Pulitzers and a Macarthur Foundation "Genius" award), and I've really appreciated seeing her plays. In particular, Sweat, which we saw at Ashland in 2015 (before I started theater blogging, unfortunately), has stuck with me. This new show, Clyde's, is getting productions all over the country right now, and it revives one of the more interesting (and problematic) characters from Sweat.

The Play

Our story is set in the kitchen of a sandwich shop frequented by truckers called Clyde's. The eponymous Clyde is the owner, who is a formerly-incarcerated woman who hires other ex-cons to work in the kitchen. Clyde is pretty mercurial, and treats the staff poorly, but they have limited options with their backgrounds. So they work in the kitchen, dreaming about making something more out of it. The oldest of the staff, Montrellous, is kind of the sandwich guru, describing ingredients and techniques that would seem to have no place in a truck stop. The experienced staff include both Letitia, a divorced single mother of a child with severe health issues, and Rafael, the master of the fryer and young, aspiring chef.

All of these characters are people of color, so when Jason and his white-supremacist tattoos arrive, there is a certain amount of tension (to put it mildly). Jason is the carryover character from Sweat, and the assault that put him in prison was part of that play.

As the play progresses, the sandwich cooks bond in their resistance to Clyde's domination, and eventually each spills the story of how they ended up behind bars. It's an interesting if sometimes heavy-handed examination of the lives, choices, and options of formerly incarcerated individuals, along with some rather random investigations of the wonders of the sandwich.

The Production

The cast is strong, and many have local roots and connections. Harold Surratt as Montrellous makes the most of what is a somewhat baffling character at times. Cyndii Johnson as Letitia is a strong presence throughout--she's kind of the moral center of the show, and probably the character that is most fully and convincingly developed. Louis Reyes McWilliams is Jason, a truly difficult role, and he does it well. Nottage has said that crafting that character was the most difficult part of the play for her, and she has clearly given it much thought and nuance. McWilliams is up to the task. Wesley Guimarães is a charming and fun Rafael. I'm a bit befuddled by April Nixon as Clyde: she does it well, but I just don't understand the character. I think that's on the playwright, or maybe the director (Taylor Reynolds), but I have real difficulty figuring out what I'm supposed to make of Clyde.

And although the props onstage do look pretty much like a sandwich kitchen, the overall effect isn't very convincing. They seem neither very busy nor well-stocked. The kitchen is awfully clean, bright, and spacious for what it's meant to represent.

Bottom Line

There's a lot to like about this show, and that might be part of its problem. For a bunch of ex-cons, this is an awfully likeable group of people, and they get along pretty well. Other than the obvious conflict with newcomer Jason, I don't feel much tension within the group, other than what they direct at Clyde. And we never get an explanation of why Clyde treats everyone the way she does.

So, there's some good writing here, some good characters and scenes. But it doesn't really feel like a full, finished play. If you take out the lengthy riffs on aspirational sandwich ingredients and such, this is probably less than an hour of real material, and that could use some more clarity.

Overall, I guess I'm disappointed because my expectations were so high. I hoped for more. What we got was just OK. The play continues through the coming weekend, closing February 26th. There are better options available.