“Clybourne Park,” the new play at the Mark Taper Forum, takes place in a community you would not want to live in, or even visit. After meeting the residents of this all-white neighborhood, as presented by playwright Bruce Norris, you would certainly keep away
After a dreary, unfunny opening, the play introduces us to a couple who are about to move to another house. Since this is supposed to take place in 1959, the neighbors drop in to object to the fact that they are selling their house to a colored (African-American) couple. Ho hum. The assumption is that everyone has seen “A Raisin in the Sun,” which was pertinent and compelling 50 years ago. Although the second act brings us up to date, the evolution is extremely depressing.
In the first act, the characters are unpleasant and stereotyped. The wife, arranging for the move, is played like an exaggerated Zazu Pitts. She is so ditsy, it is difficult to understand why her husband can put up with her. Enter the vicar, who looks like an Olympian athlete, but overacts as if he is an old man. Then another couple shows up, the woman deaf (for laughs) and the man as the neighborhood bigot. All this is so old hat, it is difficult to understand why this play won a Pulitzer Prize.
The directing by Pam MacKinnon does not help. People are positioned like mannequins and the various doors are used as if they are in a Marx Bros. comedy.
Since the second act is updated to 1999, the actors take on different roles. They are Crystal A. Dickinson, Brendan Griffin, Damon Gupton, Christina Kirk, Annie Parisse, Jeremy Shamas and Frank Wood. I am in the minority with this review, but even my companion was unimpressed.