CLYDE'S Comes to Canadian Stage in April

Canadian Stage will conclude its season with the Canadian Premiere of the newest play from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage, CLYDE'S, on stage April 11th to 26th at the Bluma Appel Theatre. 
 
The most produced play in America in the 2022-2023 season, nominated for five Tony Awards and awarded four Drama Desk Awards, CLYDE'S is both an uplifting meditation on redemption and human dignity, and a crackling, hope inspiring, laugh-out-loud comedy.
 
Set in a struggling truck stop sandwich shop, CLYDE'S follows a group of formerly incarcerated cooks fighting to rebuild their lives under the watchful eye of their tough-as-nails boss, Clyde. As the kitchen heats up, the cooks channel their ambition, creativity and frustration into crafting the perfect sandwich. A buoyant play full of hilarious and heartful characters, CLYDE'S is a transcendent story about second chances, found family, and reconnecting with the world.  
 
Full of sizzling wit, big heart, and mouthwatering ambition, with CLYDE'S Nottage serves up a thrilling, high-energy ride. Helmed by returning director Philip Akin (The Lehman Trilogy, Fat Ham), an all-star cast lead by Sophia Walker (Slave Play, Fairview) takes on this deliciously funny and deeply moving play. 
 
“If Lynn Nottage was hired to write an episode of The Bear, it would be this play,” shares Canadian Stage Artistic Director Brendan Healy. “Lynn is one of the most observant and empathic playwrights I can think of and a perennial audience favourite. With CLYDE'S she brings her distinctive observance of social realities and the themes of rehabilitation and redemption, into a restaurant kitchen and into realm of comedy – this is a very, very funny play, firing on all cylinders.”
 
Healy continued, “I love when directors and writers have an ongoing relationship and for this production, we are thrilled to have Philip Akin, who led a beautiful production of Nottage's Intimate Apparel for Canadian Stage in the 2009-2010 season, directing for us again. Philip is uniquely able to bring out all the strength in Lynn's writing – I didn't have to think long about asking him to direct this one.”
 
The incomparable Sophia Walker plays Clyde, following an astounding performance in the 25-26 season opener Slave Play. It was a performance which the Globe and Mail called, “a layered performance that ought to be remembered come next year's Dora Awards,” the Toronto Star commented, “the ever-impressive Walker delivers a tremendous performance,” and Glenn Sumi exclaimed, “When Walker is on stage, we always listen.”
 
Walker is joined by an equally illustrious ensemble including Augusto Bitter, Jasmine Case, Sterling Jarvis, and Johnathan Sousa.  Joining Akin on the creative team of CLYDE'S are set designer Rachel Forbes, Costume Designer Arianna Moodie, lighting designer Leigh Ann Vardy, sound designer Jacob Lin, and stage manager Anna Kaltenbach.
 
Lynn Nottage is one of the most produced contemporary playwrights in North America and the world, and the only woman to have won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, for Sweat and Ruined.  Her work includes MJ the Musical (Tony Nomination), Intimate Apparel the Opera (Drama Desk Nomination), Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics' Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por'knockers and POOF!.
 
CLYDE'S had its World Premiere at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis in 2019, then debuting in November 2021 at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway. In October 2023 the play made its UK premiere at The Donmar Warehouse.

CLYDE'S runs April 11th to 26th (Media night: April 15th) at the Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front Street E.).  Performances take place Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm.