A great ensemble cast run a gauntlet of black guy gags in this hilarious play by Bruce Norris.
Taking his cue from A Raisin in the Sun, playwright Bruce Norris delves into an imagining of the events surrounding the move of an aspirational black family, the Youngers, into a white, middle-class, American neighbourhood. The first act of Clybourne Park is set in 1959, when liberal white couple Bev and Russ pack up their home after selling it cheaply to the Youngers to escape the lingering suicide of their war-veteran son. The second act begins in 2009: the Youngers are long gone but their home remains of great historical value to the community, though not so much to a white couple who want to demolish it.
Martin Freeman has the privilege of playing the cruelly blatant Karl Lindner who appeared briefly in A Raisin in the Sun when he tried to dissuade the Youngers from their move to Clybourne Park. Freeman shines again in the second act as Steve, whose thoughts on “the ghetto” will, or at least should, split crowds. It's in the lines that explore this issue that Norris triumphs as he allows Freeman's character to be at first the obnoxious voice of prejudice and then the hesitant voice of white guilt.
Norris seems to have detached himself with a cleverly sculpted ensemble of characters played by a uniformly talented cast. They exude biting wit and are all masters of comic timing. The politically correct Lindsey (a fantastically funny Sarah Goldberg) is married to the less-so Steve who comes to polite blows with humorous Kevin, played by the versatile Lucian Msamati, and his cool wife Lena (Lorna Brown).
Kevin and Lena implore their white neighbours to consider the historical value of the house they are about to raze, while trying to avoid dictating how to construct their home. The conversation is calm, affable and jammed with spiked humour until Steve dares talk about race using the word race.
But is this a play about prejudice? In the first act yes. Norris does away with euphemism and displays the ignorance that prevailed fifty years ago. Sophie Thomas is staggering in her portrayal of the desperate '50s housewife Bev, still mourning for her son but with a big brave smile slapped across her face as she tries to give away her possessions to her black maid.
However, in the second act (2009) language becomes the focus as both couples stumble through a conversation about the rise in crime rates and drugs and run a gauntlet of race-related jokes. Norris then shines a light on the difference in their values. He draws a contrast between the black community's concern for the historical importance of the house and the white couple's right to build their own home in an odd game of top trumps.
Disappointingly, he only touches on the actions we're taking today that we are likely to regret. But his play is superbly performed and relentlessly funny in its exploration of a weighty issue. Though he makes the common mistake of throwing in unnecessary, additional gritty issues towards the end, and leaves us with a cheesy final scene, Clybourne Park is by far one of the best contemporary plays on race.
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