Imagine a sandwich so sublime that it literally takes your breath away. This ambrosia, this culinary aspiration comes not from the Clyde’s of cabin fame. That Clyde’s is in the Soo. This one is at some truck stop in Pennsylvania. That one mainly hires high schoolers. This one only hires ex-cons. That Clyde’s recruits from Whitopia. This Clyde’s features all the colors of the rainbow. With that one, Clyde was one of Bub’s classmates and was definitely a guy. With this one, Clyde identifies as a woman but is probably more devil than human.

This is the play Clyde’s, now at the Rep. This one act play, set in a greasy spoon’s kitchen, features four chefs, three acolytes and one master chef. All of them aspiring to make the perfect sandwich, amid dealing with the problems garnered in prison. Throughout the show each of these cons turned chefs in turn unveil their latest creations. Seeking each other’s approval, they are always stymied by their own personal demons. Lording over this tableau is Clyde. Always barking orders to the denizens of the kitchen over an annoyingly too loud overhead speaker. Short of stature she rules over this diner with bluster, scorn and just plain meanness. Her convicted employees have nowhere else to go, they know it, she knows it. Prisoners still of their past, of mistakes made, paid for, but unforgiven. Like the devil itself she tortures them still.