UGA Theater's Clybourne Park

Playing on race issues is a tricky business, but the University of Georgia’s production of Clybourne Park had the audience simultaneously laughing hysterically and gasping at their audacity to do so. Running from Sept. 26 through Oct. 5, the performance was a winning combination of superb directing – by State Theater of Georgia Artistic Director Paul Pierce – a thought-provoking plot and actors who marvelously transitioned from character to character.

Bruce Norris wrote Clybourne Park in 2010 in response to Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 creation, A Raisin in the Sun. Clybourne was met with much critical acclaim, and ultimately received the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. The play’s structure is simple enough – a two act role reversal that turns race on its head – but the genius is in the dialogue. Pay close attention, or you might just miss a witty joke or seven.

Set in white, middle-class Chicago neighborhood Clybourne Park in the 1950s, the playgoer in the know would quickly realize that the action begins shortly after Raisin in the Sun’s Karl Lindner departs the Youngers’ Hamilton Park home. The scene is the residence of Bev and Russ, flawlessly depicted by senior Elle Oetter and freshman Alexander Garrett. The two are arguing over such insignificant issues as whether Neapolitan ice cream is from Naples when Karl (played by third-year M.F.A. student Wyatt Geist) and his wife Betsy enter with a, “Hehhyoooh, Behhhh.” You see, Betsy, adapted by senior Hayden Field, is both pregnant and deaf, and provides most of the comic relief in the scene to offset Bev and Russ’s constant arguing. Karl has come to convince the couple not to sell their house to a black family – presumably the Youngers from Raisin in the Sun. Tension ensues from all sides as Karl tries to reason with Bev and Russ, despite the couple’s desire to leave the home in which their son committed suicide. The racially charged conflict occurs in front of Francine and Albert (played by Jasmine Thomas and JL Reed), an African-American couple that tends to the home of Bev and Russ.

A scene from Act 1.

If Act One sets up the plot, preps the audience for a racial conversation and introduces the lively performers, Act Two is where all of the above shine. The same home is the setting for the act, except this time, the year is 2009 and a black couple resides there. All the actors are the same, though playing vastly different characters, a challenge that any performer will tell you is difficult to pull off. Field and Geist’s second turn as couple Lindsey and Steve, who want to purchase the home, is the comedic center point of the entire show. Again, an aggressive tension occurs between the black couple and the white couple, and the spotlight is on the way each deals with discussing race. In perhaps the most raucously funny scene, Lindsey attempts to prove her cultural acceptance with a line we’ve all heard: “Half of my friends are black!” When Steve challenges her, she barely names one.

 

A scene from Act 2.

Clybourne Park is a spectacle of dynamic characters in the midst of quarrels and gags (and sometimes both at once) concerning race, gentrification and the innate desire to build a better life. But be warned: as with any groundbreaking creative piece, you’re bound to feel uncomfortable a time or two. You’ll find that you laugh at jokes you’ve been taught to frown upon, and gasp at lines at which the rest of the crowd is hooting. Discomfort be damned, though – Clybourne Park forces us all to think and talk about issues that we’d normally prefer to avoid.

Photos by John Kundert-Gibbs, Sept. 2014.