I hr
Page 12
Portland Observer Black History Month
February 24. 2010
ïN ïïE T A lM tfN I
Race
Play opens
window to
gentrification
(AP) -- Race and real estate. No
shortage o f opinions about either
one.
Intertwine the two and you get
"Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris' re
markably perceptive, often hilari
ous and surprisingly poignant look
at changing — and not-so-chang-
ing — views on both subjects in one
Chicago neighborhood.
Astute observers o f American
drama may recall that Clybourne
Park is the all-white area o f the city
where the black family in Lorraine
Hansberry's landmark 1959 drama,
"A Raisin in the Sun," buys a home.
And in Morris' riff on "Raisin,"
we are in that house, first in the
1950s, when the white family is pre
paring to sell and then, 50 years
later, when a second white family
wants to move into the now black
neighborhood.
For this off-Broadway Playwright
which opened
c Horizons
. . production,
..
w
-
Sunday ,nN ew York City, director
Pam MacKinnon has assembled a
crackerjack ensemble cast. All o f
them do double duty playing differ-
ent characters in the two different
eca es'
Damon Gupton (from left), Crystal A. Dickinson, Annie Parisse and Jeremy Shamos tackles issues o f gentrification in a scene from
Bruce Norris' 'Clybourne Park,' now running off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in New York.
And M acK innon has staged
the play with the precision o f an
orchestra conductor, giving clear
voice to a variety o f contentious
opinions, displayed m ost vocifer-
ously in the play's second h a lf
when political correctness evapo-
rates in a parade o f one-upmanship
bad jokes.
In Act I , playwright Norris pro-
vides a backstory for those origi-
nal sellers, a couple named Russ
and Bev, who are m oving to the
suburbs. And as the play opens,
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An ongoing series of questions and answers about Americas natural healing profession
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Chiropractic has been the leader tists know now that our attitudes Isn’t it tim e you stepped up to
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they banter as if stuck in a '5 0 s property values and a loss ofcom -
television sitcom , the goofy Bev
munity. "Who shall we invite next
(a deliciously funny perform ance the Red C hinese’ " he com plains’
by Christina Kirk) and the grumpy
By the second act it is the
Russ, a spot-on Frank W ood
lo n g tim e b lac k r e s id e n ts of
But their comic dialogue masks C lybourne Park (Damon Gupton
the heartbreaking reason they are and Crystal A. Dickinson) who
selling the house — to escape the are w orried about w hat 2009
m em ory o fth e ir son, a young sol- gentrification m ay do to their
dier, who killed him self upstairs, neighborhood. Especially when
The decision to sell doesn't the upw ardly m obile newcom ers
please their neighbors, particu- (Sham os again and Annie Parisse)
la rly u p tig h t K a rl ( J e re m y want to put in a koi pond. But
Shamos), whose racist opinions then, W hole Foods has already
are hidden in his concern about arrived.
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