---
title: Lynn Nottage and Sam Hurwitt on Clyde’s optimism
description: In Lynn Nottage’s ‘Clyde’s, the menu calls for laughs and wary optimism.
image: https://www.centreforoptimism.com/hubfs/Smiling%20waiter%20serving%20a%20client%20at%20the%20coffee%20shop.jpeg
---

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# Lynn Nottage and Sam Hurwitt on Clyde’s optimism

<https://www.centreforoptimism.com/blog/clydes>

"In [Lynn Nottage](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#)’s ‘Clyde’s, menu calls for **laughs** and wary optimism**.**"

So writes [Sam Hurwitt](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#) in his review of [Lynn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#)'s play Clyde's premiering at [Berkeley Repertory Theatre](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#).

It's set in "a kitchen full of formerly incarcerated people working in a truck-stop sandwich shop dream of something better, sometimes in ways as simple as dreaming up the perfect sandwich."

[Lynn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#)" told Sam, "‘Clyde’s’ ends in an unambiguous place of optimism.”

Nottage interviewed people in **#Reading** as part of a commission for the [Oregon Shakespeare Festival](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/#)’s “**#American** Revolutions” cycle.

“Many of the people who I encountered in that city were formally incarcerated,” Nottage recalls. “I ended up having a lot of conversations about the difficulty of re-entry after being in **#prison** for so long. And people had very similar stories. They kept hitting up against the box when they were being asked whether they were incarcerated. They couldn’t find housing, couldn’t find jobs. But what moved me was the fact that so many of the people who I spoke to were still able to hold onto their **#optimism**.”

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