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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Clyde's Also see Richard's review of The Curious Savage
It's nobody's idea of a perfect life. But nouvelle cuisine becomes a thread out of the underworld. Nottage's Sweat and Intimate Apparel each lead us into the strangely surreal. But it's even more pronounced in Clyde's, currently being presented at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. It's funny and flirty and frightening under the direction of Josiah Davis, with set design by Jean Kim. And there's a bitter chill in the air, thanks to a pair of consultants from the esteemed Prison Performing Arts company of Missouri: LaWanda Jackson and Eric Satterfield. The one hour forty-five minute play (without intermission) was commissioned by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where it debuted (as Floyd's) in 2019. It opened at the Hayes Theater on Broadway in 2021 where it ran for a little more than two months. Now actor Ron Himes, founder of St. Louis Black Repertory, glows with wisdom as Montrellous, an accidental master chef leading young ex-cons toward new careers. Even so, even as free as they are, a sense of doom pursues. And if Mr. Himes is this play's earl of sandwiches, then Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (in the title role as Clyde) must surely be its wicked witch of the west, in a flaming red bus driver wig. As the truck stop owner, she swears like a truck driver and has gotten herself into hock with the mob. Or perhaps it's to ruthless money launderers. A lot of her exotic food supply seems to have simply "fallen off a truck." And while the drama is as fresh as the new-cut flowers that garnish a trucker's plate, the comedy is strictly meat and potatoes. In any case, Clyde's gives us a whole new meditation on how the physical world devours the spiritual. Alfredo Antillon plays Rafael, who operates effortlessly between deluxe gastronomy and comical gangsta-ism until heartbreak comes his way. Essence Anisa Tyler is elegantly, but completely, stressed out as Letitia, a sandwich-making protégé ground up in the harrowing world of single mom parenting, with too many grown-up men on drugs around her. And Brendan D. Hickey reveals startling vulnerability as Jason, on the journey from wild man to would-be connoisseur. Clyde's runs through March 2, 2025, at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, 130 Edgar Rd., St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.repstl.org. Cast: Production Staff: Additional Production Staff: |
