Double Crossword
LIKE a photograph and its negative, the two acts of Clybourne Park reflect reality in white and black, identical, but inverted. Bruce Norris’s witty script, ventilating issues both personal and socio-economic, is served with insightful direction by a well-cast ensemble to make this dark comedy memorable theatre: it is hilarious, sad, disturbing and relentlessly intelligent.
Before a word is spoken the audience has some time to view another protagonist not named in the cast list but central to the action – a solidly built middle-class house in a desirable suburb of Chicago, its interior re-created with meticulous attention to period detail (the year is 1959). Set designer, Saul Radomsky, has outdone himself in this evocation of an American bourgeois home, first in its mid-20th century heyday, then 50 years later as a derelict slum awaiting gentrification.
The change in its state and fortune is inextricably linked to the change in the Greg Karvellas Andrew Buckland, Susan Danford, Lesoko Seabe, Scott Sparrow, Nicholas Pauling, Pope Jerrod, Claire-Louise Worby Fugard Theatre, October 1 neighbourhood’s demographics, the latter inspiring eviscerating debate on racial issues. It all starts when a white family moves out of their residence in an all-white suburb after selling cheaply to a black family for reasons that become apparent later. Thus begins the transformation of Clybourne Park.
Seven characters, five white and two black, translate into concrete reality the tensions, attitudes, prejudices and anxieties of individuals dealing unwillingly with their suburb’s evolution and its perceived threat to their communal identity. Herein lies the strength of this play: it transcends the specifics of time and place since the issues addressed are readily identifiable in any context where a community resents alien invasion, and especially when that resentment is exacerbated by racial differences.
The more things change, the more they stay the same… In Act Two we have one reprise after another of material in Act One, subtly modified but still recognisable – heated arguments about the identity of foreign countries’ capitals, trivial red herrings dragged into conversation to distract from uncomfortable truths, and much skating over the thin ice of political correctness when it comes to racial identity, the obstinate elephant in the room.
The dialogue, by turns brittle and smooth, abounds in double entendre and debunked clichés as topics like tradition, culture, and respect for the past surface amid off-colour jokes and increasingly abusive language. Act Two is arguably the less engaging of the play’s two halves, but the cast cannot be faulted in either.
Its members fill radically different roles pre- versus post-interval, but the depth and veracity of their portrayals is consistent. Buckland is magisterial as a grieving paterfamilias, Danford beautifully nuanced as his wife, and Seabe equally impressive as an efficient domestic worker and later, a frustrated community representative. Worby’s portrayal of a deaf woman is a gem, matched in humour by Pauling’s deeply unlovable Karl. Sparrow and Jerrod show enviable versatility in their vastly different roles in both acts.
After an evening in Clybourne Park, one can see why this play scooped a trio of awards (Pulitzer, Tony and Olivier). Splendid stuff. Rising current of air (9) 3 Boiled sweet (5) 4 Craven (8) 5 Material used for sails (6) 6 Merited, deserved (9) 7 Ultimate extent (5) 8 Dull and impassive (6) 9 Decrees (6) 15 Illustrate, embody (9) 17 Exercise machine (9) 18 Work of art (8) 19 In tight curls (6) 21 Breed of large gun dog (6) 22 Shellfish soup (6) 24 Frolic (5) 25 Extraterrestrial (5)
- 2 Anecdotal. 3 Claws. 4 Filament. 5 Lapdog. 6 Providing. 7 Kanji. 8 Heckle. 9 Oxygen. 15 Coachwork. 17 Constrain. 18 Suitable. 19 Sphere. 21 Yearns. 22 Candle. 24 Lodge. 25 Dirty.
- 1 Cross Bones. 2 Aznar. 3 Baku. 4 Etalon. 5 Tony Lema. 6 Picasso. 11 Song Reader. 13 Prie-dieu. 14 St. Lucia. 16 Goshen. 17 Emery. 20 Iona.