Lynn Nottage is having a fairly high-profile year in London - we've had
The Secret Life of Bees, and hot on the heels of
Mlima's Tale at the Kiln, it's back to the Donald and Margot Warehouse where
Sweat was staged in 2019.
Clyde's takes place in a shared universe with the latter play, as well as sharing a director in Lynette Linton, and while it shows the American playwright to have lost none of her enthusiasm for tackling a heavy subject, it also displays much more of a light touch. The titular establishment is a truck stop diner run by ex-con Clyde (Gbemisola Ikumelo,) who exclusively hires other former inmates who can't find work anywhere else. Although to what extent this is her attempting to help them is a different story, as her managerial style is full supervillain - she likes to keep them terrified of her and remind them that if they don't toe the line and she fires them, nobody else will give them a job.
