Show Review: Clybourne Park

[rating:5]

This play was really, really good.

The cast of about 7 or so does a great job in playing the multiple, quite different roles they are assigned, stirring up emotions from beginning to end.

From the very start of the play the intense drama is present. Racial undertones that are not so subtle, dealing with not only racism and gentrification, but also suicide and the damage it does to a family.

The play starts in the 1950′s, the home of a white family, from there the drama unfolds among them, fast and furious. The initial matter at hand being the suicide of the family’s  veteran son, accused of war crimes. Soon thereafter it turns into a discussion about the same family selling the home to a black family. A black family in an entirely white neighborhood? Oh no, that doesn’t go over well with the neighborhood association.

Fast forward fifty years and you are in present day, now you have a white couple moving into the same house, however, now it’s the black folks that are concerned with a white family moving in, and the effect it could have on the now mostly black neighborhood.

The actors do a great job transitioning between the 2 periods, there is plenty of drama and intensity, but also some really funny points as well.

The play was really good, thanks to my dear friend Tina for bringing me as her plus one on a Yelp freebie. I really enjoyed the show and I’m glad I was able to see it.