Theater Review: CLYDE’S (Mark Taper Forum)

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by Tony Frankel on November 25, 2022

in Theater-Los Angeles

A TURKEY SANDWICH

We are at a greasy spoon sandwich shop whose patrons are truckers making the long haul across Pennsylvania. The owner, Clyde, and her four sandwich makers are all ex-cons. But she’s the boss. While she enters and exits with orders and pick-ups, she humiliates her workers, who put up with her browbeating for fear they’ll end up back in the slammer. While she’s gone, they dream up artisan sandwiches, which really is a metaphor for their hopes to work past old errors, bad relationships, and the disparagement they get from the world. In Lynn Nottage‘s play, fresh from Broadway with a mostly new cast, you may drool over every new sandwich they fantasize about, and taste their yearning for a new life, but I left hungry for a great play.

Nedra Snipes, Tamberla Perry, Garrett Young and Reza Salazar

Something is undercooked as Nottage optimistically examines a path to self-redemption for the employees: The serio-comic script, occasionally funny, is aimless, uneven, slow and disappointing. But the main problem is that it lacks any semblance of a plot. That there is never a let-up in the scenario between Clyde and her employees for 95 minutes is a problem. Although it is a very real situation, it gets draggy in the theatre, because someone or something has to change. By the conclusion of this symbolism-stuffed, abstruse, esoteric script, we are nearly as worn down as the workers from this relentless battle between cruelty and hope.

Reza Salazar, Nedra Snipes, Kevin Kenerly and Garrett Young

Then there’s some kind of unexplained Biblical allegory: Montrellous (Kevin Kenerly), a gentle angel of a man who was innocent of a crime but incarcerated for helping someone out, feels almost like a saint, with his fellow sandwich makers looking up to him and his culinary skills. Meanwhile, Clyde inexplicably has the personality of Beelzebub, constantly smoking and even setting the stage on fire a few times (the astounding tech team is matched only by the astounding budget at the Mark Taper Forum). When the open-to-interpretation ending goes headlong into obscure absurdism, it’s as if the author — searching for profundity in her story — has no idea how to unravel the knot she created. Even with some sparkling dialogue, it all feels indulgent. And why does Montrellous fail to serve as a worthy foil to Clyde? The good versus evil theme remains unexplored, which obscures much of the wickedness beneath the story. I tell you, I was itching to get out of the theater.

Nedra Snipes, Reza Salazar (center) and Garrett Young

Director Kate Whoriskey (who regularly collaborates with Nottage) complicated things by overemphasizing the play’s broad humor to the point where it often starts to resemble a sitcom version of the reality show Hell’s Kitchen. Still, when Clyde (a sexy as hell Tamberla Perry) is on stage, her scenes are more entertaining (if that’s the word), largely because there’s some real conflict (Clyde remains a one-note character). Forget dialogue — what will be remembered is her amazing eye-popping outfits by Jennifer Moeller. Sadly, the titular entrepreneur is a supporting character, and when she exits scenes fall flatter than a thin layer of ham on a matzo cracker.

Tamberla Perry and Garrett Young

photos © 2022 Craig Schwartz Photography

Clyde’s
Center Theatre Group
Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave. in Downtown L.A.
Tues-Fri at 8; Sat at 2:30 and 8; Sun at 1 & 6:30
ends on December 18, 2022
for tickets, call 213.628.2772 or visit CTG

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Rizzo Minnelli November 29, 2022 at 2:42 pm

Tracey Letts had his donut shop play Superior Donuts turned into a two-season CBS sitcom. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nottage is aiming for a similar jackpot.

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maddie beltrami November 30, 2022 at 6:47 pm

Yikes, this was an impulse ticket by at the Ahmanson a few weeks ago cause my peeps said they hadn’t been to the Taper in a long time. I was so on the fence about this one definitely leaning towards no, but caved and said yes to go in a few weeks. I’m not really happy now! Love Maddie

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James Hoyt-McDaniels December 2, 2022 at 9:34 pm

Didn’t even make it past 45 minutes when we walked out. Nottage is one the best playwrights in America, but this is an almost unexplainable fail.

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