Clybourne Park
OnStage Atlanta
through February 27, 2022

Bruce Norris’ play, Clybourne Park, is akin to a sequel to Raisin in the Sun, inasmuch as it deals with racial discrimination. It has been described as brutally funny, but I think the emphasis might be more brutality than humor.

You meet Russ and his wife, Bev. They’ve sold their home in the all-white Clybourne Park and are relocating to a site much closer to Russ’s workplace. Their housekeeper, Francine is helping them pack up. They do get some calls and visitors, including a guy from the local Rotary Club who is concerned about local images changing for the subdivision, and a pastor who finds himself stuck in the middle of a debate about to turn into a confrontation. All the players play at least 2 roles, as the story changes from 1959 with whites selling out to blacks; and current days with homes from black to white.

In Act 1, 1959. Russ has sold the property to a black buyer. Those were the days when having a black family invade a neighborhood gave rise to white flight and dropping prices. Ergo, the folks from the neighborhood are seriously against this sale, albeit there is nothing they can do, and Russ would not condescend to anything.

Come back after intermission and Act 2 is quite a different situation. The neighborhood became pretty much a black residential area but there are some folks who want to gentrify the area and now it is the blacks who get riled up about having those honkeys moving into their ’hood. There is also another complication in that the property may have some ghastly memories which will come out in the play. It was a time of difficulty for many people in 1959 as it was current days. Sort of a paradigm for “what goes around, comes around.”

Barbara Washington directed this one, which might very well have been in your own neighborhood. I recall hearing from a neighbor some years ago that a black family was moving into a home a couple of doors away from us. My response was to ask if the neighbor thought the new folks wanted something different for their family than he wished for his. Tickets and more info available at OnStageAtlanta.com