Clyde’s (ArtsWest / Hansberry Project)
Stage Review - Clyde’s
Presented By: ArtsWest and The Hansberry Project - West Seattle, WA
Show Run: June 06 - June 30, 2024
Date Reviewed: Thursday, June 13, 2024
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
Funny thing about life, you never know where it’s going to take you, what you’ll see or hear along the way, and how each of these will affect you. Take the latest show running on stage at ArtsWest in West Seattle through June 30, Clyde’s. Clyde’s is a co-production from ArtsWest and The Hansberry Project, is directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, and features a cast of five talented actors telling playwright Lynn Nottage’s story of former inmates coming together to work at a truck stop diner outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, each fighting to put their pasts behind them and looking for a bit of redemption in life. As I’m watching Clyde’s, and listening to Nottage’s excellent dialogue, I was struck by a few things, the first when the character Montrellous, played by the incomparable Reginald André Jackson mentions getting off a “Bieber Bus”, and later when Joe Moore’s Jason mentioned living in a tent by the “Pagoda on Mt. Penn”. While I can’t say for sure, I would venture to guess that I may have been one of two people in the audience who truly understood those references, as Reading was my backyard growing up. These localized references aren’t the only reason the play feels familiar, Clyde’s captures the hard blue collar spirit of the area around Reading. The play takes place in a diner at a truck stop just outside of Reading, where Montrellous works along with Rafael (Jacob Alcazar), Letitia (Deja Culver), and newcomer Jason. They all work for the life-hardened task master Clyde (Tracy Michelle Hughes), who gives no quarter, accepts no excuses, and is the barrier between her employees and a life of post-prison freedom. As a result of the familiar nature of the location, I decided to do a little research on Lynn Nottage, and her connection to the area I grew up in. Clyde’s isn’t necessarily a sequel to her Pulitzer Prize winning play Sweat, it’s more of a companion piece, with the same Pennsylvania setting and one character, Jason, shared by the two stories. Sweat was a dark play, while Clyde’s offers a bit more hope, though you might not know that in the way the story begins.
As the play starts, sandwich maestro Montrellous is working on his art, trying to build the perfect sandwich, while sharing ideas with co-workers Rafael and Letitia. Montrellous is doing his best to make something that their boss Clyde would like, hoping to convince her that this greasy spoon truck stop can be so much more. Clyde, who treats her employees with a healthy dose of harassment (sexual and otherwise) and belittlement, is happy with the status quo. As the play progresses, we learn that there is a reason for her investment in the sameness, and we also learn what drives each of her employees not to challenge her. She (Clyde) is the first one to tell them that, to a person, she is their only option, the only thing standing between life on the outside and a trip back to prison. She’s also not afraid to hold that over them, but what Clyde doesn’t count on is the power of hope, the power of positivity that Montrellous exudes and brings to each of her charges.
Clyde thrives on chaos, the more disorganized her employees are, the more it benefits her ability to keep them under her thumb. Tracy’s work in this role is excellent, her Clyde is a hard woman who expects a lot of her employees, and at the top of that list of expectations is that they put their work ahead of everything else, including their families and personal lives, and follow her blindly. She gives no quarter, and Tracy plays Clyde with all of that authority and intimidation, even lulling the audience in when they think she’s treating one of her employees with a shred of respect, only to flip that around with an insult. The only one that seems to be able to keep his wits about him, and provide some element of order in the chaos is Montrellous, played masterfully by Reginald André Jackson, who in this role proves again why he is one of the most versatile and entertaining actors in the region. There’s a certain “zen” quality about Montrellous, a something about the character that is able to rise above Clyde’s domineering, an alternate authority that is more genuine, more serving of the interests of the group. Reginald is as commanding a presence in this role as he is in most everything he does, and while his character isn’t on stage as much as the other kitchen employees, his is the settling factor, when the work and the environment become too much for the others, Montrellous settles them with hope, centering them all around his goal, which becomes theirs, which symbolically is the building of the perfect sandwich, as he says “the most democratic of all foods”.
Rafael and Letita are the two working for Clyde and alongside Montrellous when the play starts, until Jason arrives, different from the outset, first in the fact that he’s white, and second in that he’s covered in neo-Nazi tattoos, a carryover from his part in Nottage’s Sweat. Deja Culver is Letitia, Jacob Alcazar is Rafael, and Joe Moore plays the newcomer Jason. When Jason arrives, Deja’s Letitia begins grilling him about his tattoos, initiating him into Clyde’s, and generally trying to be as off putting as possible, while Jacob’s Rafael, who has quite the thing for Letitia, is agreeable but in a much quieter way. Meanwhile, Joe plays Jason with a defensiveness that is well earned, in fact the three seem to be feeling each other out, and are eventually brought together by the shared experience of working in this diner, and through the calming and centering nature of Reginald’s Montrellous. The beauty of this play is in how each of these characters grows together and within themselves, united by hope in an environment that must feel like hell on earth to them. It’s this that is the only way that they can ever put their past behind them.
In addition to assembling this cast, Director Valerie Curtis-Newton’s vision for Clyde’s is both straightforward and extremely creative. Working with Jennifer Zeyl on scenic design, Chih-Hung Shao on lighting, and Rob Witmer on sound, the stage from the outset resembles the back of house area of a diner, with prep tables, appliances, and the window to the front of house laid out not just in a functional way for the building of the sandwiches that are so much of a part of this story, but also for Valerie’s blocking which is designed very well to present the story to the three sides of the seating area at ArtsWest. Full marks as well to Robin Macartney as the Props Manager, using a mixture of real and not so real sandwich components, and to Stage Manager Kimberly Le for making sure everything is in place. There is a lot going on here, a lot of movement, and quite a lot of pieces to keep track of, wrangling all of it together is no easy feat. And regarding Ricky German’s costume design, again it brings the audience into the kitchen, but also accentuates the characterizations in the story, Montrellous’ look more African themed, Jason’s, Letitia’s, and Rafael’s each reflecting a cultural influence but also their socioeconomic situation and blue collar ethic, while Clyde’s is more authoritative. This is a theme, a vision that Valerie has created whose elements are pervasive in the design of the show.
On the creative side, perhaps my favorite part is what happens between scenes. During scene changes, between the pieces of dialogue, the lights dim on the stage, as one might expect, but the walls of the kitchen are used for projections, designed by Michael B. Maine, that complement a soundtrack that doesn’t just foreshadow the tone of the next scene, it also provides some additional insight into the characters, like the thunder that seems to roll in whenever Clyde enters the prep area. It’s quite nicely done, and the choreography of movement in these changes, along with the music is as entertaining as the dialogue heavy parts of the play.
Lynn Nottage’s Tony nominated play Clyde’s shows how in a world of oppression and hate, where past mistakes can be used against a person, hope, positivity, and community can give them a fighting chance to break away and strive toward a life free of looking back. Valerie Curtis-Newton directs a wonderful cast, led by the versatile and entertaining Reginald André Jackson, in a production that excels creatively to tell this story in a way that makes us all think about our judgements of others and their pasts, and our acceptance of those that have paid a price for their mistakes.
Clyde’s, presented in partnership between ArtsWest and The Hansberry Project runs on stage at ArtsWest in West Seattle through June 30. For more information about ArtsWest, visit https://www.artswest.org/, and to learn more about The Hansberry Project, visit http://hansberryproject.org/. Ticket availability and purchase can be accessed at both websites.
