With Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next to Normal currently running at the theatre, Donmar Artistic Director Michael Longhurst and Executive Director Henny Finch have announced full casting for the European première of Clyde’s which reunites double Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and director Lynette Linton as a follow up to their Donmar smash hit Sweat which transferred to the West End.
Linton directs Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Letitia), Patrick Gibson (Jason), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Clyde), Sebastian Orozco (Rafael) and Giles Terera (Montrellous). The production opens on 19 October, with previews from 13 October and runs until 2 December.
CLYDE’S
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Lynette Linton
13 October – 2 December 2023
Designer: Frankie Bradshaw
Lighting Designer: Oliver Fenwick
Sound Designer: George Dennis
Movement Director: Kane Husbands
Composer: Duramaney Kamara
Wigs, Hair and Make Up Designer: Cynthia De La Rosa
Voice and Dialect Coach: Hazel Holder
Casting: Anna Cooper CDG
It’s kind of a ritual, we speak the truth. Then, let go and cook.
In the bustling kitchen of a run-down Pennsylvania truck stop, the formerly incarcerated staff have been given a second chance. Under the tyrannical eye of their boss Clyde, this unlikely team strives to create the perfect sandwich, as they dream of leaving their past mistakes behind for a better life.
Double Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat, The Secret Life of Bees) and director Lynette Linton (Critics’ Circle Best Director for Blues for an Alabama Sky) reunite for the European premiere of the hilarious and hopeful CLYDE’S,the follow up to their Donmar five star production of SWEAT which transferred to the West End.
Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ playsLetitia. Her theatre work includes Blues for an Alabama Sky –nomination forBest Actress at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Three Sisters – winner of the third prize at The Ian Charleson Awards and Best Female Actor in a Play at the Black British Theatre Awards (National Theatre), Lava (Bush Theatre – Winner of Best Performance Piece at The Offies, nomination for Best Female Actor in a Play at the Black British Theatre Awards), Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court/Abbey Theatre Dublin/Public Theater New York), Bad Roads (Royal Court Theatre), The Mountain Top (Young Vic), Twelfth Night (Filter Theatre), The Oresteia (Home), Pride and Prejudice (Sheffield Theatres), The House That Will Not Stand, The Colby Sisters of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Tricycle Theatre), Anon (Welsh National Opera) and Random (Crooked Path). For television, her work includes Rain Dogs, Alex Rider, Big Age, Soul Mates, Black Earth Rising, Cuckoo, Cold Feet, Doctor Who, Josh, NW, Sick Note. Chewing Gum and Suspects; and for film, Chevalier, Ear For Eye, The Big Other, Been So Long, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One and One Crazy Thing.
Patrick Gibson returns to the Donmar to reprise his role as Jason – a character who also appeared in Sweat. His television work includes Shadow and Bone, Before We Die, The Spanish Princess, The OA, The White Princess, Guerilla, The Passing Bells and Neverland; and for film, The Portable Door, Good Girl Jane, Tolkien, The Darkest Minds, In a Relationship, Their Finest, Property of the State, Cherry Tree and What Richard Did.
Gbemisola Ikumelo plays Clyde. For theatre, her work includes Twelfth Night (Young Vic), Our Country’s Good (Nottingham Playhouse), Oliver Twist (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The New Nigerians (Arcola Theatre), The Night Watch (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Lion King (UK tour), The Colored Museum (Talawa Theatre), Death and The King’s Horseman (National Theatre). A BAFTA winning actress and writer, she won the BAFTA for Best Short Form Programme in 2020 for Brain in Gear, her BBC pilot which is currently being made into a 6×30 series for BBC2. This year she was nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards 2023 for her breakout role as ‘Clance’ in Amazon series A League of Their Own. In 2021 she was BAFTA nominated for Best Female Performance in a Comedy and won the RTS Award for ‘Female Performance in a Comedy’ for her series regular role in BBC sketch show Famalam. Her other television work includes Black Ops (which she co-created), Temple, Roadkill, Sex Education, One Night, and Broadchurch; and for film, The Power, The Last Tree and Cocktail.
Sebastian Orozco plays Rafael. His theatre work includes A Fight Against (Royal Court Theatre), The Laramie Project, Earthquakes in London (Bristol Old Vic) and Ripple (National Youth Theatre, Arcola Theatre). For television, his work includes HALO, Masters of the Air, Alex Rider and You Don’t Know Me; and for film, The Crow.
Giles Terera returns to the Donmar to play Montrellous – he previously appeared in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. His other theatre work includes Blues for an Alabama Sky – Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor, Othello, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Hamlet, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, Troilus and Cressida, Candide, Honk!, The Darker Face of the Earth, Walk in the Light, Mind the Gap (National Theatre), The Meaning of Zong (which he also wrote, Bristol Old Vic/Royal Lyceum Edinburgh/Liverpool Playhouse/Barbican), Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s Theatre), Hamilton – Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Victoria Palace Theatre), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe/international tour), King John (Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour), Pre Imagination – The Songs of Leslie Bricusse (St James Theatre), The Book of Mormon, Rent (Prince of Wales Theatre), The Tempest (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Don’t You Leave Me Here (Leeds Playhouse), The Playboy of the Western World (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Avenue Q (Noël Coward Theatre), The Rat Pack (Novello Theatre/international tour), Jailhouse Rock (Theatre Royal Plymouth/Piccadilly Theatre), 125th Street (Shaftesbury Theatre), You Don’t Kiss (Stratford Circus), Up on the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Tempest (RSC), Six Degrees of Separation (Sheffield Theatres), Generations of the Dead (Young Vic), Bill Shakespeare’s Italian Job (Playbox Theatre, Warwick), The Demon Headmaster and The Animals of Farthing Wood (Pleasance Theatre). For television, his work includes Flack and Horrible Histories; and for film, Death of England, The Current War, London Boulevard and Muse of Fire (his documentary created with Daniel Poole).
Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Recent work includes the book for MJ the Musical (Broadway), the libretto for the Intimate Apparel Opera (LCT), and Clyde’s (Broadway, 2ST, Goodman Theater), and co-curating the performance installation The Watering Hole (Signature Theater). Past work includes Sweat, Ruined, the book for The Secret Life of Bees; Mlima’s Tale; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Intimate Apparel; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por’knockers; and POOF!. She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ms. Nottage is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame, and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship (among other awards). She is also an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Lynette Linton is the Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre. She was previously Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse. For the Donmar, her credits include Sweat (also West End; Best Director, Black British Theatre Awards).Her other productions include August in England, House Of Ife and Chiaroscuro (Bush Theatre), Blues for an Alabama Sky (National Theatre, Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director and Critics’ Circle Award for Best Director), Richard II (co-directed with Adjoa Andoh, marking the first ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage) (Shakespeare’s Globe), Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre) Function (National Youth Theatre) This Is (Arts Educational School), Indenture (Dark Horse Festival), Naked (Vault Festival), This Wide Night (Albany Theatre). She was also co-director on Chicken Palace (Theatre Royal Stratford East). As assistant/associate director her credits include The York Realist, Belleville, The Lady from The Sea and Knives in Hens (Donmar Warehouse), Torn (Royal Court), Image of An Unknown Young Woman, The Christians (Gate Theatre), Gutted (Theatre Royal Stratford East), and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Noel Coward Theatre). As a writer her productions include Hashtag Lightie (Arcola Theatre), and Chicken Palace and Step (Theatre Royal Stratford East). For television, her credits include My Name is Leon; and as writer: Look At Me.
