A PROFOUND AND HEARTRENDING PLAY ABOUT REDEMPTION

By Richard Cubitt · Richard Cubitt Substack ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Press Invite

Playing at the Tower Theatre in Stoke Newington until the 23rd of May, this is an entertaining and well-performed production of Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s, a profound play about redemption and art through the medium of sandwiches, from director Phoenix Rayo.

A dingy short-order kitchen like the one realistically rendered here by set designer Max Batty is somewhere a lot of people will work when they have no other option, yet it also gives access to a kind of art in sandwich making. This experience is what brought me into the play and enabled me to see the later discussions of redemption and life as a convict from a position of someone relating to the characters.

The play was longer on pathos than I expected it to be with the character of the sandwich guru, Montrellous’s absence being strongly felt whenever he was not on stage due to Josiah Phoenix’s calming and avuncular performance. Furthermore, there was a moment when Jason, played by Ciarán Lawler left the stage after his first scene, and I felt a genuine tension around whether or not he was going to come back or return to prison.

Benedict Cezair-Thompson as energetic grill chef Rafael provided an excellent performance of physical comedy. His character is mostly used for comic relief with a short silent sequence of him trying to complete a bunch of orders on his own bringing back the realism of the difficulties of working in kitchens in the first act. Later though his humour is turned on its head, in a sequence in which he comes in having returned to abusing drugs, and we are left shocked and heartbroken.

Conflict between the characters is provided by Jason, an ex-prison gang member, who slowly switches place in the narrative with Rafael, ultimately getting the biggest laughs in the second act. More significantly the characters must deal with Clyde, played by Layomi Coker, the owner of the joint, who’s refusal to be drawn into the romance of sandwich making and cutting tongue leaves the audience devastated whenever she lays into her employees heartbreakingly puncturing their confidence.

The art of sandwich making, something the characters will never be truly recognised outside the walls of the kitchen for, but which plays a redemptive role in their lives is heartrendingly related by an engaging cast in this production.

Clyde’s is running at Tower Theatre until Saturday 23 May.

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Photo Credit: George Huxley