Interview: 'I'm in Awe of Everyone Every Day': Patrick Gibson on Cooking on Stage and Returning to the World of Lynn Nottage in CLYDE'S

CLYDE’S, Lynn Nottage’s follow up play to Sweat, opens at The Donmar Warehouse on 19 October. Taking place “in the bustling kitchen of a run-down Pennsylvania truck stop,” formerly incarcerated men and women have been given a second chance by the owner of the truck stop, Clyde. Each is working to leave their past behind and focus on the future while they strive “to create the perfect sandwich.”

BroadwayWorld sat down with Patrick Gibson, who played Jason in Sweat back in 2019 at The Donmar Warehouse and returns to the same venue to play the same character. In a strange twist of fate, the time that has passed in the real world is the same time that would have passed between the events of Sweat and CLYDE’S. We discussed what it is like to be taking on the role of Jason again, what he’s learned from rehearsing for this production, and his thoughts on cooking!

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So what made you want to be a part of CLYDE'S? 

I mean, being a Lynn Nottage play to begin with is enough in itself! I’d done Sweat in 2019 and I just had so much fun. It was such a stimulating experience working with her writing, and then also having Lynette Linton directing. So yeah, just the people, first and foremost, who were behind it. And the whole creative theme for CLYDE'S were the same as SWEAT . And that was a very special experience. So to get the opportunity to come back and play the same character that I played, when the same amount of time has elapsed in the “play world” as it has in the real world, is fun, too.

Can you go a bit more into your character, Jason?

Yeah! So I play Jason who appears in Sweat. And in Sweat, we see him in 2001, where he is working in a steel factory with his best friend, Chris, and their families are very close. Over the course of that play, you see tensions in those relationships begin to arise due to factory workers being locked out of their factory as a result of the NAFTA agreement and the wider political context at the time. And, eventually, Jason, through frustration and anger and a feeling of lack of control over his own life, does something terrible, which I won't say because it's actually revealed in CLYDE'S - which is really interesting, talking about something that's happened and having experienced it on stage a few years ago.

So Jason ends up being incarcerated for eight years and when he comes out, he slowly starts to rebuild his life, even though while he's been in prison, he's become much more radicalised in his views and ends up joining what would be a white supremacist or Aryan Brotherhood group. We don't really like using the term white supremacist, because it's a dumb term [Laughs], but that's what they call themselves. So at the beginning of CLYDE'S, we pick him up and he's three months out of prison. He lands this job at a truck stop diner, working in the kitchen, where he hopes to rebuild his life. And it's not quite as easy as he imagined, when he came out of prison, to get the life back that he once had, because of mistakes he's made. A question for him is if it's even possible to become the person he once was.

Did you do much research before taking on the role?

It's lucky that we have so many resources about people who've been incarcerated. There are documentaries and things you can watch to get an insight into the US prison system. And then we were also really lucky backstory-wise, we also had a guy called Mark come in and speak to us, who had been incarcerated in the UK a number of times, and for the past five years has been working in the prison reform system. That was a really valuable discussion, and he was really generous with his time, his truth, and his honesty about his experiences. And that was fascinating just to hear, what leads people to be incarcerated, and then what leads people to be repeat offenders when they're stuck in that system, which I think is a really massive issue, both in the US and here. 

And then for the kitchen stuff, we went and spent some time in a kitchen, shadowing chefs and just watching, absorbing the environment. What’s amazing about this production is we're literally cooking from start to finish. Everything's real! Everything's going on the grill. We're really chopping. It's a massive technical challenge, but once we're up and it’s going, it's going to be really fun to get in that flow and just be doing it every day. So that was great, to watch chefs. And we also had some cooking classes and knife skills. There's been a bunch!

Had you done much cooking before?

I’m a passionate chef! Not exactly talented, but I like to cook! I love cooking and I love food. I especially love cooking for people. But I think I've learned I'm probably more suited to a sous chef role than head chef. I think I need to be delegated to a little bit.

What is it like being a part of Lynn Nottage’s more comedic show?

It's such a joy to do, honestly. I mean, Sweat is so beautiful and still has so much humor, in a less overt way. There's always humor threaded through all of her writing, but Sweat is so much tension and so much pain and drama. To do this, it's so incredible. And this cast is just the most amazing group of people. I'm in awe of everyone every day. They're so funny and such a joy to be onstage with, and it's different every time! People are just having fun and trying stuff. Working with a text that allows for that is so great.

As a native Pennsylvanian, I’m curious. What accent did they have you do for Sweat and CLYDE'S?

How would you describe it? I wouldn't say it's general American, it's general but with an edge. There's a little bit of a New York influence, there's a B.E. influence. And growing up being best friends with Chris, he [Jason] was listening to a lot of hip hop and stuff like that. And ironically, probably unbeknownst to himself, he’s been influenced by African American culture in the things that he liked and who he grew up with. I think that is a funny dichotomy and a tragic one that he then goes this completely opposite direction, becomes a white supremacist.

I think it's funny that where he gets to in prison and because of those experiences, he has this physical manifestation of hatred for people that he very quickly realises he doesn't hate. And there's just so much shame involved in that. He says in the play, “I hate that I got all this shit on my face.” It's like his cross to bear now, his curse because of his mistakes and his ignorance. And that is something that he's reckoning with for the whole play. So it's interesting to see somebody who has a very clear physical manifestation of an ideology that they no longer hold and to have to live with that. 

How do you bring over that more emotional aspect while still keeping it a mostly comedic tone?

I mean, I haven't done a huge amount of comedy! But comedy and tragedy, they say, are close together, and I definitely think that's the case in this. There's beats in this play where it's literally gut-wrenching and then the next line is laugh-out-loud funny. And I feel like that's like life as well. She's [Nottage] done an amazing job of threading those two things together. And I think for us, we just have to play the truth of every moment, and then that's where a lot of the humour comes from. There is something funny about talking about a sandwich with the reverence of the Buddha. Like I put ketchup on a tuna salad and I feel ashamed because I messed with the integrity of the meal, I didn't have this guy's resolve [Laughs] . . .  These things are important, but they've been put in a context where it's a little more playing.

What do you hope audiences take away from CLYDE'S?

A sense of joy. Maybe a new perspective, maybe questions? I think it's always interesting when you watch something that reframes how you see certain things in your own life - I think that's awesome. If you can watch something and it's like, “Oh, maybe I should go and fix that relationship with this person or . . .”  That's on a grander level. But yeah, just that people come away smiling and feel the catharsis of going on this ride with these characters, and hope that they love them all at the end!

CLYDE'S runs at The Donmar Warehouse until 2 December. 

Photo Credits: Marc Brenner

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