"It's rude, it offends, it's really great," said Director Brian Mertes, head of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA directing program, on his production of "Clybourne Park."
The two-act play, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for playwright Bruce Norris, opened Oct. 14 at Trinity Repertory Company. Mertes, who also directed last season's "Steel Magnolias," emphasized the ensemble nature of the production. All cast members played two roles — and Tommy Dickie MFA '12 played three — that showcased their ability to quickly switch characters and yet still preserve believability, an acting skill displayed earlier this season by the cast of "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde."
The first act takes place in 1959, using the contemporaneous play, "A Raisin in the Sun," as a backdrop — though it seems unfair to call a play of such stature by that name — but ends in 2009, 50 years later. Mertes explained the play is not a retelling of "A Raisin in the Sun," but rather an analysis of Lorraine Hansberry's themes as they apply today.
"Clybourne Park" does not accuse its characters of racism. The play attempts to explore the issue of race, not explaining away racism but showing its permeation into all aspects of the culture around us — particularly in a hilarious but cringe-worthy scene in the second act, during which the majority of the principle actors tell each other racist jokes.
But how does a white, middle-aged man write a play like this without seeming, well, racist? For one, the ethical component of the play cannot be mistaken. By choosing to use "A Raisin in the Sun" as a sort of backdrop, Norris brings the issue of the white flight following communal integration in the 1950s to the audience's attention. But Norris reverses this theme in the second act, choosing to focus on gentrification of traditional minority neighborhoods in the late 1990s and early 21st century.
Audience member Samantha Gault, a teacher in Fairfield County, Conn., said the play centered around "having the language to talk about these controversial topics."
Michael Williams '10, who studied both theatre arts and education policy while at Brown, stressed that "Clybourne Park" is also an important play about urbanization and gentrification. "Living on the East Side is by no means an accurate sampling of Providence real estate," he said jokingly.
The most convincing — if not the most important — testament to the play's ethics, though, is the simple fact that it is incredibly well-written. The dialogue echoes human life and allows the audience to reflect on the current culture. The lines are hilarious, resulting in heaves of laughter, even to the point of a full-audience clap. For prospective audience members weary of plays in which characters whose names are not Hamlet talk for longer than 30 seconds, there are little to no extended monologues in Norris' text. The ones that are there tend to be revelatory and of great interest to the audience in figuring out the secrets of the story. And, yes, there are some pretty big secrets.
Of course, the writing of a play truly shines through only when its actors are willing to be both vulnerable and expressive. I struggled to find a standout performance in the show because each was extremely intricate and detailed. The voice work also proved particularly specific, and I envy Rachael Warren's ability to master the Boston-area, Irish-Catholic accent. Timothy Crowe, a longtime Trinity Repertory Company member, won the audience over in the first act with his delightfully grumpy, aging father figure — though, I advise getting a seat close to the front because he will occasionally improvise quiet, witty comments in response to the other characters' actions. Mauro Hantman played the delightfully malicious Mr. Karl Lindner from "A Raisin in the Sun." And, though I feel strange commenting on all the actors' performances, I have to add that Anne Scurria and Joe Wilson Jr. both sent the audience into fits of laughter by saying exactly the wrong thing at exactly the right time.
The two Trinity MFA performers, the aforementioned Dickie and Tougaloo graduate Mia Ellis MFA '12, delivered strong performances as well, though Ellis was so restrained and refined at times I found her difficult to relate to. She did have the admittedly daunting task of being a voice for the "minority" in the second act.
Ultimately, while there were scenes which inspired sensitive-audience-member tears, the actors delivered great performances because they seemed like they were having a great time, laughing along with those who had come to see the play.
So get off College Hill and go see it. Even if you have a lot of work. Even if it seems like there is no point in going to see something purely for its entertainment value. As Bev says to her husband at the start of the play, "What's the point of doing anything, fun, really?" You might as well just do it — and possibly learn something in the process.
