What Does a Sandwich Say? In 'Clyde's,' Now at Karamu House, a Whole Lot

What’s your favorite sandwich? Mine is peanut butter and grape jelly with banana slices on raisin bread toast. I know, it’s not exactly haute cuisine, but what can you do.

While you mull over your answer, consider Clyde’s, now at Karamu House, in which two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage explores the mysteries and potentials of sandwiches. And she uses that humble food as a vehicle to contemplate the fates of formerly incarcerated people who are seeking a new path in life.

It’s set in the kitchen of the eponymous truck stop in Pennsylvania where Clyde, a Black woman who also served time, lords it over her kitchen staff composed of parolees. There is nothing subtle about Clyde, since she is always peeking into the kitchen as she delivers sandwich orders and then striding amongst her employees, stopping only to sexually harass, demean, insult and threaten them. She is so ghastly, she makes chef Gordon Ramsey look as inoffensive as that other famous cook, Spongebob.

Clyde’s put-upon staff take the abuse since they could easily be sent back to the slammer if she reported them to their parole officers, so they’re stuck between a rock and a hard pita. But they have a gentle soul in their midst in the person of Montrellous (a mellow and mystical Prophet Seay), a longtime chef on a quest to create the ultimate sandwich, the one that will set him free.

Yes, there’s some magical thinking afoot in Clyde’s, but it sometimes makes for an awkward balance with the broad humor that Nottage provides. Sort of like a sardine sandwich with jellybeans topped with Reddi-Wip.

As for the other kitchen captives, they each have their own stories which are eventually shared. Letitia (performed by an actor named MAXX) is a young Black woman who has problems at home with her baby daddy who prefers staying high. Raphael (Jonathan Rodriguez) is a Latino parolee who is battling addiction while dealing with his attraction to Letitia. And new arrival Jason (Jared Hodgson) is a guy who shows his prison-incubated white supremacist leanings as he tries to work his way into this new diverse work environment.

In the central role of Clyde, Dayshawnda Ash is fully obnoxious as she delights in tormenting her supposedly “freed” workers, showing how people caught up in America’s fraught prison system have to fight for their dignity even after they’ve served their time.

There are many interesting ideas at work in Clyde’s, and there are certainly some laugh-out-loud moments, for which director Treva Offutt is partially responsible. But many potentially insightful aspects are smothered by the often-cartoonish portrayal of these people, who often orate their lines directly to the audience

We don’t learn enough about the kitchen workers, apart from the reasons they were imprisoned. And crucially, we have no idea why Clyde behaves as she does, she is just a force of malign power that exists without a backstory.

Fortunately, Montrellous is there to rhapsodize about the undefinable perfect sandwich, and his flights of imagination as he shares his ideas for future amazing sandwiches can be transporting. The others then follow their Zen master, creating their own magical concoctions.

With its faults, the play ends on a positive note with the kitchen workers, and Clyde, getting what they have coming. And we’ll take that, since happy endings are nothing to be sneezed at these days.

Clyde’s
Through October 15 at Karamu House, 2355 E. 89 St., karamuhouse.org, 216-795-7070.

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