Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Trailer Park

Trailer Park

Yet another London show has a trailer.

This time it's Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park, which opened Thursday at the Royal Court Theatre's Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

Since the preview for the Chicago-based play only hints at the subject matter, here's the theatre's online description:

In 1959 Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bed at a knock-down price. This enables the first Black family to move into the neighbourhood, creating ripples of discontent amongst the cosy white urbanites of Clybourne Park. In 2009, the same property is being bought by Lindsey and Steve whose plans to raze the house and start again is met with a similar response. Are the issues festering beneath the floorboards actually the same fifty years on?

Bruce Norris’ (The Pain And The Itch) satirical new play explores the fault line between race and property.

Regular readers will know that it was Norris' excellent Purple Heart with Laurie Metcalf that forever won me over to the cutting-edge charms of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, which ironically (I'm sure) is just a stone's throw from Clybourne Avenue. Additionally, it was Norris' biting The Pain And The Itch that first exposed me to fierce acting talents offered by Steppenwolf's exceptional ensemble members Tracy Letts, Kate Arrington, Mariann Mayberry and James Vincent Meredith. Tony-winning director Anna D. Shapiro helmed both of those works, as well as the recent Steppenwolf premiere of Norris' very latest, A Parallelogram.

Clybourne Park has already received a flat-out rave from the West End Whingers. I'll be curious to hear from my other friends in London how they received Clybourne Park, which to date, has been mounted at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons, but not yet on Broadway or at Steppenwolf.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).


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Labels: Bruce Norris, Chicago, Clybourne Park, Laurie Metcalf, London, Off-Broadway, Purple Heart, Steppenwolf, The Pain And The Itch, Trailer

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Sunday, September 05, 2010