[NEohioPAL] Review of "Clybourne Park" at Cleveland Play House

[Bob Abelman]

'Clybourne Park' has found a home at Cleveland Play House

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the Cleveland Jewish News on 4/4/14

 



221B Baker Street.  27A Wimpole Street.  186 Fleet Street.

 

Sometimes a fictional address - such as the residence of Sherlock Holmes or Henry Higgins or Sweeney Todd - takes on significance beyond the place where a character hangs his hat.  It becomes an integral part of the storytelling.  

 

This is certainly the case with 406 Clybourne Street.

 

This is the address that promised a better life to the Younger family in Lorraine Hansberry's classic play "A Raisin in the Sun."  It is 1959 and the house, which is located in the exclusively white neighborhood of fictional Clybourne Park in Chicago, is being sold to an African-American family.  The story is told from the Youngers' perspective as they are approached in their inner-city apartment by Karl Lindner, a representative of the Clybourne Park neighborhood association who has been tasked with talking them out of moving in. 

 

It is 1959 once again in Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-, Tony Award- and Olivier Award-winning play "Clybourne Park," currently being performed by the Cleveland Play House at PlayhouseSquare.

 

And, in a wonderfully conceived, cleverly written, and socially conscious bit of storytelling, we witness a parallel conversation to the one taking place in "A Raisin in the Sun."  It occurs in the residence of 406 Clybourne Street between Russ and Bev, the owners of the home, and disconcerted members of the neighborhood.  Included is Karl Lindner fresh from his visit with the Youngers.  

 

In the second act of this play we fast forward 50 years.  Over time, Clybourne Park has changed into an African-American community that has seen better days.  It is finally on the rise, however, and the now-dilapidated property at 406 Clybourne Street has been sold to an affluent white couple with plans to demolish and rebuild the house, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. 

 

Collectively, the two acts of this play tell the troubling tale of middle class hypocrisy.  We witness supposedly civilized people behaving badly when race becomes an issue and the devaluation or gentrification of real estate becomes the battle ground. 

 

In 1959, prejudice is politely albeit blatantly acknowledged; in 2009, it is given a thin veneer of political correctness.  By juxtaposing the two, the playwright is telling us is that, in American society, the more things change, the more they remain the same. 

 

To drive home this point, the same performers appear in 1959 and 2009 but play different characters who sport the same hypocrisies.  Identical fragments of conversations from the first act are cleverly woven into the second.  

 

Added to the mix is strategically overlapping dialogue, escalating shouting matches, racist and sexist jokes that both build and relieve dramatic tension, and as many poignant moments as there are humorous ones.  This play is brilliantly constructed.

 

So, too, is the set that represents the period-appropriate interior of 406 Clybourne Street.  The set was originally designed by G.W. Mercier for the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, which is co-producing this show with the Cleveland Play House.  The director Mark Cuddy, his creative team, and all but two of the actors in this CPH production just completed a 4-week run in Rochester.

 

It shows, for this production is as tight as a drum and the acting by Remi Sandri, Roya Shanks, Kristen Adele, Jim Poulos, Jessica Kitchens, Christian Pedersen, Daniel Morgan Shelley and Bernard Bygott is superb. 

 

Yet, some of the acting choices are not.

 

As if to help mine the humor out of a first act laden with much of the play's dramatic exposition, some of the characters are played like caricatures.  Roya Shanks as Bev, Christian Pedersen as Karl Lindner, and Jim Poulos as a well-intended neighbor seem to have stepped out of a 1950's TV sitcom and onto this stage.  They play everything broadly, for the laugh, which would be fine - though not desired - if everyone on stage drank the same Kool-Aid.  However, others manage to be realistic and effectively funny.  

 

In fact, Remi Sandri as Bev's husband Russ, is brilliant.   Understated in his actions, deliberate in his delivery and possessing perfect comic timing, Sandri - one of the actors who joined the cast for the CPH production - is a pleasure to watch.  

 

With its Pulitzer Prize pedigree, "Clybourne Park" is also a pleasure to listen to.  And think about afterward.  

 

WHAT:            "Clybourne Park"

WHERE:        The Allen Theatre, PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland

WHEN:           Through Sunday, April 13

TICKETS:       $15 - $72, call 216-241-6000 or visit to www.clevelandplayhouse.com
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