Clyde’s – REVIEW

Arts & Entertainment Stage

Irina Dunn
May 14, 2023

Image: Aaron Tsindos and Nancy Denis in CLYDE'S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

Imagine a truck-stop diner somewhere in America out in what we Australians would call “the sticks”.

It’s staffed by five cons who have reached the end of the line and have nowhere else to turn.

The ferocious boss, Clyde (played by the fabulous Nancy Denis), barks orders at her staff through the hatch and never lets up. They’re the only workers she can get for her ailing small business providing mostly sandwiches to truckies we never meet.

In the small commercial kitchen, which is the set for this ensemble piece, the “master chef” Montrellous (Charles Allen) tries to give life some meaning by being creative with the sandwiches he makes, and teaching his prentices to do the same. “Leave the pain in the pan” is his motto.

Aaron Tsindos, Nancy Denis, Ebony Vagulans, Charles Allen and Gabriel Alvarado in CLYDE’S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

Clyde does not approve.

Montrellous’ tyros – Rafael (Gabriel Alvarado), Jason (Aaron Tsindos) and Letitia (Ebony Vagulans) – find themselves stuck in this unspecified place for various reasons: Rafael held up a bank with a BB gun to buy his girlfriend a dog; Jason is a tattooed white supremacist who did something awful; and Letitia stole medicine for her daughter and was caught.

Aaron Tsindos and Nancy Denis in CLYDE’S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

Director Darren Yap moves his characters around this confined space, which one could take for purgatory, making excellent use of the small stage of the Ensemble – and of the play’s setting – to maximum effect.

Prisoners are society’s outcasts, and the play, by two times Pulitzer prize-winner for Drama Lynn Nottage, invites us to consider the mostly unemployable lowest of the low as they struggle to create the perfect sandwich under Montrellous’ supervision, and in doing so to reassert their humanity and worth.

Nancy Denis and Gabriel Alvarado in CLYDE’S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

Charles Allen in CLYDE’S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

Simone Romaniuk is responsible for the set and for the fabulous costumes Clyde parades in each time she enters the kitchen. Clyde is saying, “Look at me, I am somebody!”

Clyde’s is a Tony Award-nominated Broadway comedy (albeit with a dark side) and it became the most staged production in the US after it opened in 2021.

Charles Allen and Gabriel Alvarado in CLYDE’S at Ensemble Theatre. Image Prudence Upton

The ensemble work of the cast is terrific and Sydney audiences are in for a treat when they visit a show that examines a collection of people rarely seen on the stage – ex-prisoners.