Review: CLYBOURNE PARK at Hillbarn Theatre

Clybourne Park

Written by Bruce Norris

Directed by Phaedra Tillery-Boughton

Hillbarn Theatre

When you have the advantage of great material like Bruce Norris' crackling smart Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Best Play, what's left is casting and staging. Director Phaedra Tillery-Boughton succeeds on both counts in Hillbarn's winning production of Clybourne Park.

Dovetailing on Lorraine Hansberry's ground-breaking A Raisin in the Sun, a black perspective on housing discrimination, racism, and assimilation in Chicago, Clybourne Park focuses its sharp eye on a dark satire of the white role in racism, gentrification, and historical legacy. Wonderfully cast, the actors get to sink their teeth into Norris' sizzling dialogue, showing the range of social attitudes in post Korean War 1959 in the first act, to a reverse mirror image fifty years later.

Russ (Ron Dritz) and his wife Bev (Mary Lou Torre) are moving to the suburbs following the tragic suicide of their son. His grief is compounded by anger with the community that treated his son as pariah. When it's discovered that his real-estate agent has sold their home to a Black family, its payback time for Russ.

The first act displays the blatant anti-integration racism of its time illustrated by two community characters, neighbor Karl (Scott Reardon) and clergyman Jim (Steve Allhoff) who desperately attempt to dissuade Russ and Bev from selling to blacks. There're some comic elements thrown into Act 1 (Russ and Bev's innocuous silly banter over the origin of Neapolitan ice cream and laughs at the expense of Karl's deaf pregnant wife Betsy (Caitlin Gjerdrum)) to balance out the nauseating racism. Russ and Bev's maid Francine and her husband (AnJu Hyppolite and Ron Chapman) become unwitting pawns in the battle.

Act II fast forwards to 2009 where a white couple are attempting to raze and rebuild the home from the first act. All the actors now play different characters, some related to characters from Act I. What starts as a discussion by concerned community members including a Black couple, a gay man and a housing representative turns into a battle over gentrification of the now predominantly Black community.

Accusations of veiled reverse racism devolve into a bitter exchange of vulgar jokes and recriminations. Ron Dritz, who played a commanding role as Russ in Act 1 gets a comic role as a construction worker who happens upon a trunk Russ buried in 59 filled with mementos that play a part in a sentimental coda involving their son's suicide to end the play.

Clybourne Park is unflinching in its portrayal of race relations codified by Jim Crow laws in 1959, a slam dunk you can say. Its greatness is in its reversing the conversations in Act II and advancing the setting to modern times. Buoyed by fine ensemble acting throughout, Hillbarn Theatre should be proud of presenting tough material that is current and controversial.

Clybourne Park runs through October 30th, 2022. Tickets available at 650-349-6411x2 or online at hillbarnthetatre.org

Photo credits: Mark and Mary Photography

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