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 HeartwithLaurie Metcalfthat 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.
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How Pain-Free Did Critics Find The Pain And The Itch?
Bruce Norris' dark comedy about affluent white liberal guilt opened last night at New York's Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theatre to middling reviews.
Calling The Pain And The Itch"a carefully constructed story," Daily News critic Joe Dziemianowicz cites "a delicious Jayne Houdyshell" and notes that the show's "[M]essage isn't all that shocking: Liberals, yes, liberals, just like conservatives, will do anything to protect their self-interests. Anna D. Shapiro (who helmed the Chicago production) directs with clarity and precision, seamlessly shifting scenes between past and present."
Labeling the show a "funny but tough-to-stomach social satire," The New York Times' Charles Isherwood states that The Pain And The Itch is, "Carefully plotted (overplotted, actually) and marked by a savage comic flair, it is nevertheless seriously marred by overstatement, a familiar flaw in the work of writers still finding their aesthetic footing."
Variety's Marilyn Stasio also takes aim at playwright Bruce Norris' writing, noting that he "is skillful at juggling his multiple time frames; he's less so at developing his case against the morally bankrupt know-it-all classes....Not surprisingly, the solid cast does its best work in scenes and snatches of scenes that can stand on their own....Houdyshell brings much-needed intelligence to what is essentially a cartoon version of the clueless mother."
In his review, New York Post's Clive Barnes savages the production saying "As metaphors go, few are as unpleasant as the central one in The Pain and the Itch....While the playwright clearly has serious things on his mind, the characters and situations he's devised here are facile and unconvincing."
The Pain And The Itch is scheduled to play at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage through October 8.
Playwright Bruce Norris' black social comedy The Pain And The Itch-- which had its world premiere a year ago at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre -- will enjoy its official New York debut tonight at the Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theatre. The play won the Jefferson Award for Best New York in 2005, the highest honor for new plays in Chicago.
Norris is renowned for taking audiences on breathtaking journeys things are never what they seem. I've marveled at his excellent works, including Purple Heartand The Unmentionables. While I didn't feel The Pain And The Itch was of quite the same caliber when I saw it during its original run in Chicago, it was primarily because I believed one of the leads was not up to the arduous task of heading the play's highly dysfunctional family. Thankfully, in the New York incarnation, he has been replaced by the wonderfully creepy Christopher Evan Welch, whom I first saw in Purple Heart in 2002.
If I had to give you two words for seeing this show, they'd be: Jayne Houdyshell, who is absolutely brilliant as the grandmother afraid to confront potential abuse issues surrounding her granddaughter. Houdyshell is so believable in this role that she was awarded Chicago's Jefferson Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
As in Chicago, the play is helmed by Anna D. Shapiro. New York performances run through October 8. Will the critics take to this show that ultimately hinges on affluent white guilt? We'll find out tomorrow.
Houdyshell Itching to Reprise Steppenwolf Role Off-Broadway
As previously reported, the Bruce Norris play The Pain And The Itch -- first produced last year at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre -- is set for its New York debut beginning September 1 at the Mainstage Theater of Playwrights Horizons. The official opening of this emotionally-charged comedy that centers on class and race relations is set for September 26.
The great news is that the outstanding Jayne Houdyshell (Tony-nominated this year in Well) is set to reprise her memorable role as the concerned mother/grandmother. Anna D. Shapiro will once again direct. Not only did Houdyshell win Chicago theatre's Jefferson Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in The Pain And The Itch last year (see photo), but the production itself was nominated for Best New Play.
The Off-Broadway cast will also include Mia Barron, Aya Cash, Peter Jay Fernandez, Reg Rogers and Christopher Evan Welch, as well as Ada-Marie L. Guitierrez and Nora Markus alternating in the role of the play's seemingly endangered child.
Houdyshell alone makes this a production worth seeing, but I've also been delighted by the talented Welch, first catching him as a troubled Vietnam vet in another Norris play (Purple Heart at Steppenwolf in 2002), and then again Off-Broadway in Woody Allen's Writer's Block during 2003. His creepy characterizations are an artform all unto themselves.
I'm thrilled that this show is finally getting the New York audience it deserves.
The Pain And The Itch Slated for New York Run Nothing is quite what it seems in the fictional world of playwright Bruce Norris. Fond of unexpected twists and turns, Norris’ excellent works have become staples of Chicago’s renowned Steppenwolf Theatre, which will host the world premiere of his latest play The Unmentionables this July.
My first-ever visit to Steppenwolf came at the urging of an Australian friend visiting from Sydney who wanted to see Norris’ amazing Purple Heart with Laurie Metcalf and Christopher Evan Welch back in the summer of 2002. Purple Heart is a comedic drama about a Vietnam War widow (Metcalf) who’s visited by a vet (Welch) claiming to have known her husband. That production still haunts me to this day.
Three years later, I was back at Steppenwolf as a newly-minted member of its Auxiliary Council Board of Governors taking in Norris’ controversial The Pain And The Itch, directed with fine precision by Anna D. Shapiro. Again, the experience was a rollercoaster ride of emotions, in this case, pivoting on the welfare of a young girl for whose safety we feared. I was introduced to the riveting Jayne Houdyshell (currently Tony nominated for her role in Lisa Kron’s Well), who played a wonderfully distressed grandmother in this “satire of the politics of class and race.”
I’m delighted to report that New York audiences will now be able to take in this outstanding play -- once again helmed by Shapiro -- at Playwrights Horizons, September 1-October 8. While casting has yet to be announced, I’m hoping that Houdyshell will reprise her role. Be sure to put The Pain And The Itch on your “must-see” list!
An outpouring of critical raves was not enough to keep Lisa Kron's Well alive on Broadway, now scheduled to close on May 14 -- two days before the Tony nominations are announced.
This is perhaps the one play of the year I truly regret not having had an opportunity to see, not only for its innovative approach to story-telling, but also for the pure delight of seeing Jayne Houdyshell perform. Less than a year ago, I took in Steppenwolf's production of The Pain And The Itch in Chicago and found Houdyshell to be the most compelling cast member in an amazing ensemble. Let's just hope that despite Well's closing, the Tony committee will see fit to provide this show the respect it's earned. Or in the very least, nominate Houdyshell.
Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles Limited run extended through May 31, 2011 (Show will go on hiatus starting January 15 and reopen at Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 8)
Rock Of Ages - Open-ended run (Show will go on hiatus starting January 9 and reopen at Helen Hayes Theatre in March)
As someone who has been involved in both politics and public relations, it's no wonder I love watching theatre. Good or bad, it's the raw energy of seeing a live performance that gets my adrenaline pumping. From the moment I saw my very first Broadway show ("Annie" in London in 1979), I was hooked. Now I see as many as 70 shows each year ranging from soaring musicals to two-hander plays. And these eyes just may be in an audience near you!
