One of the great treats for theater lovers is when the quality of a performance is equal to the excellence of the material.
The production of “Clybourne Park” playing at Schenectady Civic Theatre through Sunday is that kind of work. It offers first-class acting that captures every nuance of a script that balances between laugh-out loud humor and touching drama. Throw in a healthy dose of social consciousness and you have a superior night of theater.
“Clybourne Park” is about the complicated social issues related to living in a neighborhood. In all neighborhoods a dynamic is set in motion when a house is sold or purchased.
In the play, one sale takes place in 1959 where an all-white community is concerned about the owner selling to a black family. The next sale, 50 years later, the same house is on the market again. In 2009 members of the community are now concerned about the threat of gentrification destroying the character of historic houses in a rundown area.
Adding to richness of the story is that the house is the same home that caused such racial dissention in the Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun” when the black Younger family was planning to move to the white suburb of Clybourne Park.
The performers play different characters in each act. Though they seem radically different people the essence of the characters is the same in both acts. The people fear the social imbalance that a changing demographic will cause.
In 1959 the overt fear was that selling to a black family would reduce property values. In 2009 similar racial fears are in play but they are more subtle. Racism still exists but in a more polite manner. A fascinating twist is that assertive attitudes of the African-American characters in the second half of the play are informed by the actions by whites towards the minority characters in the first act.
Before this starts to sound as if the play is an intellectual or political exercise, it must be pointed out that the fears and prejudices of the characters are so an honest representation of each era in which they take place it is impossible not to laugh at behavior that is as foolish as it is hurtful. This is not a ha ha look at a serious social issue, but it is a provocative play with many funny moments.
Indeed, the play’s broader focus is about the communal obligations of individuals within a community. The tragedy of the family that lives in the home being sold to the Younger family in the first act signals that a community that acts without compassion and relies on self-serving motives cannot endure or prosper.
That “Clybourne Park” can address so many complex issues and still be an amusing and entertaining work is a tribute to playwright Bruce Norris. That this production is able to bring the characters and issues to such vivid life is a tribute to director Chris Foster who finds the clarity in the writing and guides the naturalistic tone of the performance. This is a play filled with rich and authentic characterizations.
Patrick White offers a rich, sensitive and controlled performance of a grief-striken father in act one that is heartbreaking and real. Evan Jones creates two wonderfully annoying people with Karl and Steve. Katie Weinberg is funny as Betsy, the passive deal wife in act one, and is even better as Lindsay, the fed up wife of Steve in act two.
Nicolle Galligan makes Bev, an almost irritating presence as a 1950s personality-deprived housewife. She is also good as Kathy a millennial who gets her identity from status symbols. Nick Bosanko plays two passive-aggressive types in each act and is delicious with each.
Angelique Powell finds a way to signal the inner strength of the maid Francine who though invisible to the white community is able to make clear her contempt for her employers without using words. When given words in the second act her Lena takes no prisoners. The least showy roles are her husbands Albert and Kevin. Jean-Remy Monnay is able to show how the men’s aloof behavior is a sign of their inner-confidence.
The only quibble with the production is the functional set which could be more comfortable in the first act and much more deteriorated in the second act.
Comfort is not something offered in “Clybourne Park.” This is an honest play that will offer you opportunities for conversation on the way out of the theater and beyond. It runs through Sunday and should be seen.
“Clybourne Park” at Schenectady Civic Theatre, 12 S> Church St., Schenectaday. Performances through Sunday. 518-382-2081
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record
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