In CLYBOURNE PARK, which also won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, Bruce Norris imagines the history of one of the more important houses in literary history, both before and after it becomes a focal point in Lorraine Hansberry’s classic “A Raisin in the Sun.” In 1959, the house, which is located in a white neighborhood at 406 Clybourne St. in Chicago, is sold to an African-American family (the Younger family in “A Raisin in the Sun”). Then in 2009 after the neighborhood has changed into an African-American community, the house is sold to a white couple. It is through this prism of property ownership that Norris’ lacerating sense of humor dissects race relations and middle class hypocrisies in America.
On the whole well-acted, and wonderfully directed by Pam MacKinnon making her own Broadway debut, “Clybourne Park” has provocative things to say about race relations, about community, about our failures at communication, about whether generational change is real change. It says them with humor and with insight. There are also some moving moments, and eerie moments that can pass for moving. The play is without question worth seeing, the reward of doing so the satisfaction not only of crackling theater but of keeping up with what’s happening in the culture. But will “Clybourne Park” endure the way “A Raisin in the Sun” has? Will it stir people 50 years from now?
Rarely in American drama have the gaps between what one wants to say, how one says it and what one really feels been as hilariously explored for dramatic effect as Norris is able to pull off here. There are secrets in this house and surprises, too, expertly managed by helmer Pam MacKinnon on Daniel Ostling's thematically expressive set, in the hands of a brilliant and versatile company. All are united in the task of peeling back society's veneer to confront the terrors lurking below the surface. 'Clybourne Park' has no easy answers for the questions it raises about the historical roots and present-day dimensions of racial disharmony. But it sharpens the viewer's antennae for the obfuscation in which we timidly traffic when trying to discuss those questions, and that's a public service right there.
2010 | Off-Broadway |
Playwrights Horizons Production Off-Broadway |
2011 | West End |
West End Transfer West End |
2012 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2022 | West End |
West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Jeremy Shamos |
2012 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Production of a Play | 0 |
2012 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Debut Performance | Crystal A. Dickinson |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Pam MacKinnon |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Jeremy Shamos |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Bruce Norris |
2012 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Daniel Ostling |
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