“Clyde’s” serves a stacked sandwich of comedy, drama and character study

It may seem like a run-down truck stop diner, but for the formerly incarcerated staff of Clyde’s, it’s a place where they can find community, support and a second chance at life. As they look toward the future and dream about how to move on to bigger and better things—like creating the perfect sandwich—Clyde tries to keep them right where they are.

Written by two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage, Clyde’s has become a popular production since its Broadway debut in 2021. It comes to Portland Stage with a talented ensemble cast featuring Lance E. Nichols, who embodied August Wilson in last season’s How I Learned What I Learned. He and director Dominique Rider** joined a conversation from the theater’s rehearsal hall.

*Member, Actors’ Equity Association, ** Member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society

Adams: I’m seeing an Intimacy and Fight Choreographer credited on this show; Hollie Pryor is her name. Are you telling me I get to see a comedy with sex and violence too?

Rider: [Laughing] You know, Clyde is a bull in a China shop. She doesn’t care about things getting broken. She’ll talk to you the way she wants to talk to you, but not everyone in the show lets her talk to them like that.

Nichols: Clyde never got the “woke” memo.

Roland Ruiz* and Latrisha Talley* rehearse as Rafael and Letitia in “Clyde’s”at Portland Stage. Photo by James A. Hadley.

Rider: We call her “the warden” in the rehearsal room. The kitchen is a limbo, and the workers are kind of trapped there. So there’s a big fight between her and another character. It’s a big moment, very intense, and it became clear that we needed to do this safely. Now for the intimacy, there’s a big kiss in the show too. It’s exciting and fun, but my job is to make sure actors feel safe and comfortable as they explore that moment.

Lance, tell us more about your character, Montrellous. It seems he’s the heart of the show.

Nichols: That’s a good analogy. He’s a guy recently released from prison, but he’s a great man at heart. Maybe some of the other characters are other organs, and the heart feeds them. He’s the voice of wisdom in the group. He tries to encourage them to find something to believe in to move their life forward and not stay locked in a prison mentality.

Dominique, as the director, when you read the script, what jumped out at you as something you wanted to explore more and put your own stamp on?

Rider: The cast is predominantly black. The characters are formerly incarcerated. The play is very funny, but my fear is that if it is too funny, the audience forgets that these are supposed to be people with real dreams and struggles. With Montrellous, I was excited to dig into how he arrived here. How are we balancing the sageness, the wisdom, with the fact that he’s also a regular guy trying to make a life for himself and his girlfriend? I want to pull the humanity out of the comedic devices. You will laugh, but you will get hit in the gut.

Nichols: This is a play about second chances. Everybody deserves a second chance, especially if they’ve served their sentence. But in this country, we have people that come out of prison and can’t jobs because of the parole system. It’s a failure that needs to be addressed. There’s a line in the play that says just because you leave prison, it doesn’t mean you are out of prison.

Derek Chariton* as Jason during the first table read for “Clyde’s.” Photo by James A. Hadley.

Dramaturgically, is there something that the audience won’t see but you worked really hard on?

Rider: This is the most props heavy show I have done. I have spent so much time with Myles (Hatch, stage manager) building out each sandwich and how it is made. We had someone come in and teach the actors knife work, so they are really skilled at cutting and dicing now. They’re peeling stuff and nailing lines.

Nichols: I know this a restaurant town and I want people who come to say, man, they must have really worked in a kitchen! I also want everyone to come hungry. That’s all I’ll say. If you haven’t eaten before the show, you’ll be straight when you leave.