Friday, April 20, 2012

Theater Review: Clybourne Park

Pictured L-R: Frank Wood, Annie Parisse, Christina Kirk, Jeremy Shamos, Damon Gupton, and Crystal A. Dickinson. Photo credit: Nathan Johnson.
Racial Relations: Have Things Changed All That Much Over the Years?
By Lauren Yarger
A couple hopes to buy a home in which to raise their child, but meets with opposition because they are a different race from the rest of the neighborhood. In 1959 or 2009 Clybourne Park, the story is the same, but the families are different.

That's the twist in Bruce Norris' Pulitzer-Prize winning play getting a limited Broadway run, following successful Off-Broadway, London and and Los Angeles engagements. A link to Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Son solidifies the statement that while some things might have changed since the civil rights era, we still have a ways to go. The play premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2010, just two years after the first African-American was elected president. It premiered on Broadway in 2012 just weeks after the Trayvon Martin furor.

In 1959, the owners of the home in question are white: Ditsy Bev (Christina Kirk) is packing up the recently sold home with the help of domestic helper francine (Crystal A. Dickinson). She's worried about the moodiness of husband Russ (a terrifically versatile Frank Wood) who still is depressed about the death of their war-veteran son who committed suicide upsatrs a couple of years before. She asks their pastor, Jim (Brendan Griffin), to stop by to offer some advice, but Russ isn't interested. He also doesn't care that his neighbor, Karl, is concerned that the house has been sold to a black family. Karl wonders what the change will mean for the neighborhood, especially now that he and his deaf wife Betsy (Annie Parisse) are expecting a child and were hoping to be able to raise it right there in Clybourne Park. (There is a subtle humor in how Bev tries to overcompensate to show she is not put off by Betsy's disability as ineffectively as she does to show she is not put off by Francine's race).

Tempers flare, and despite the best efforts of Francine and her husband, Albert (Damon Gupton) to throw water on the tensions, the race issue is too hot to smother.

Flip to 2009. The once painstakingly cared-for home now is a wreck, covered with graffiti (Daniel Ostling's sets and Ilona Somogyi's costumes keep us in the right periods). The new owners, Lindsey and Steve (Parisse and Shamos) are expecting and hoping to just about demolish the place and put up a new home as part of the gentrification taking place as white families look for nice places close to the city to raise a family. they meet at the house to iron out last-minute details of the contract with sellers Kevin and Lena (Gupton and Dickinson) and their attorneys: Tom (Griffin) for the sellers and Kathy (Kirk), a distant relative of the original owners. Worker Dan (Wood) checks in from time to time as construction takes place outside, but Lena isn't sure the couple appreciates the history of the house or the neighborhood where her aunt was the first African-American to live in the neighborhood. In expressing herself, she trips off another powder keg of racial tension.

Director Pam McKinnon's tight direction keeps the action moving. She guides strong performances -- all the actors make startling transitions between the characters they play in each act. While the play itself makes good use of humor and character trait to bring up thought-provoking questions, some of the dialogue seems contrived as a mechanism to help the playwright do this. Would the preacher really insist on bringing the maid and her husband into the discussion? Would Karl really come back for more after leaving in a huff? Would Steve really tell that off-color joke? Probably not, but there's reality enough in the issues being discussed.

Clybourne Park runs through July 8 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, 219 West 48th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available by clicking here.

Christians might also like to know:
-- Language
-- God's name taken in vain
-- Homosexuality (it's a mention)
-- Sexual dialogue

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Gracewell Prodiuctions

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Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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All material is copyright 2008- 2024 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.

Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.

Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.

Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.

Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.

Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.

Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.

Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.

Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.

Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.

Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

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