Rapture shine spotlight on the politics of race
East Kilbride-based theatre troupe Rapture Theatre will tour the country with Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park this autumn.
And this multi-award nominated play, in association with South Lanarkshire Leisure & Culture, will make three stops in Lanarkshire – opening at East Kilbride Village Theatre on September 7.
It’s 1959 and President Eisenhower is in the White House.
Bev and Russ are moving after the tragic death of their son, and they have inadvertently sold their house to the neighbourhood’s first black family.
Fifty years later, in 2009, with the first black president just having taken office, a young white couple buy the same house in what is now a predominantly black neighbourhood.
In both instances, racial tensions escalate, the stakes are raised, and the play asks the question: Have our attitudes to race really changed? Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Olivier Award for Best Play and hailed as “shockingly entertaining” and “appallingly funny”, Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race.
The cast features Robin Kingsland (Rapture’s The Browning Version and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), popular Scottish performer Jackie Morrison and leading Royal Shakespeare Company actress Frances Mcnamee.
Director Michael Emans said: “I am thrilled to be directing this play.
“It is challenging, in that it dares to ask the audience whether attitudes to race, gender, disability and class have really changed.
“We might feel that we live in a more enlightened age, but do we really ?
“The play also satirises those who claim to be politically correct and give themselves status through their supposed insight ..are they really insightful, or when you scratch the surface do old attitudes exist ?
“The play is also very funny, with a dark satire that illuminates both the best and worst of human behaviour.
“I love Clybourne Park , it’s both daring and hilarious and undoubtedly a play for our times.
“We have a great cast, a great play and a great story. All we need now is you, our audience. Hope to see you there!”
Alongside the production Rapture will be running a series of post-show discussion panels in partnership with Show Racism the Red Card (SRTRC) to help raise awareness of issues of race.
Touring to 16 venues across Scotland, Clybourne Park comes to Lanark Memorial Hall on September 13 and Motherwell Theatre on September 18. It will also be staged in nearby East Renfrewshire at Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock on September 25.