‘CLYDE’S’
WEDNESDAY 6/7-SUNDAY 6/25. Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
There’s something about a workplace comedy. It’s such a compelling formula that we’ve seen it on TV dozens of times. Hell, we’ve even seen it at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre earlier this very season with “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” which takes place in the writer’s room for a 1950s variety show. Maybe it’s the forced closeness — the way being someone’s colleague means you’re inevitably up in their business, even if you didn’t choose to be — that makes for good entertainment. In any case, The Rep’s final production of the 2022-2023 season is another look at what happens behind the scenes among co-workers, but the setting this time is the kitchen of a truck stop diner outside of Reading, Pennsylvania.
A critical piece of context driving “Clyde’s” — a new play written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage that left Broadway just last year — is that everyone who works at the titular restaurant is formerly incarcerated, including Clyde herself, the tough-as-nails proprietor, brought to life in this production by Arkansas Black Hall of Famer Phyllis Yvonne Stickney. Though the prevailing mood is humor, the fragile circumstances and lingering pasts of the characters imbue this show with an always-lurking gravity.
In keeping with the play’s interest in the long-term effects of incarceration, The Rep has partnered with several prison justice organizations. On Wednesday, June 7, DecARcerate and Little Rock Freedom Fund will be at The Rep for a 6 p.m. reception before the 7 p.m. show. Additionally, Restore Hope Arkansas and Compassion Works for All will be doing the same on Friday, June 16.
Tickets are available here.
