Wendy Strehlow, Briallen Clarke, Cleave Williams, Paula Arundell and Nathan Loveday. Image by Clare Hawley.
Racial tensions flare in Chicago, 1959, as a black couple prepare to move into a wealthy white neighbourhood. The white community’s outrage reveals shocking racism by today’s standards… or is it? Flash forward to present day, and the same neighbourhood has become a black ghetto. As a wealthy white couple prepare to move in, predictable racial tensions flare, demonstrating that in 50 years, we really haven’t made much progress.
Seduced by the provocative tagline, ‘Are we addicted to political correctness and do we use it to mask our inherent racism?’, I was expecting something a little more edgy in this performance. On that front, I was disappointed. It’s hardly provocative anymore to use ignorant, bourgeois white characters to explore the theme of racism. This theme has been done to death, and this play is a fairly shallow treatment of that theme. Clybourne Park was written in response to A Raisin in the Sun (1959), a play exploring similar themes written by the first black woman to have a play performed on Broadway. What is edgy in 1959 is less so now. Furthermore, as I enjoyed my post-performance drink in a wealthy white neighbourhood overlooking a bay of yachts, I couldn’t help wondering if the irony of that situation was lost on the audience. A wealthy white audience paying lip service to the issue of racism by laughing at wealthy white characters also paying lip service to racism. Perhaps this was an inappropriate choice for this particular venue and theatre company.
Not that it’s not a good play – it is very good. Great, even. A strong ensemble cast, a simple but strong narrative, and dialogue so sharp and snappy you could crack a whip to it. Structurally, perhaps a little too tight and didactic for my tastes, but that’s not a bad thing for a general audience. I only question the rationale through which this play received so many awards, as I would have expected a Pulitzer prize winner to redefine the genre in some groundbreaking way.
Performances are strong, if not a tad stagey. It’s a professional cast, but not a particularly organic or intuitive one, so you won’t find much subtlety or nuance. And… accents. I’m not a huge fan of fake accents unless they are impeccably executed (and they weren’t). They get in the way of the audience’s connection with the characters, and they seem to trip up the performance at the same time. Nevertheless, if you can get over all that, there are some very enjoyable performances to be had. Special mentions to the perfect comic timing of Nathan Lovejoy, and Paula Arundell, who has impressively mastered the non-dialogue aspects of this performance with facial expressions that tell a thousand words.
In all, a decent production of an enjoyable play, but considering this subject matter is so relevant to similar situations around Sydney, and that there were many avenues this play could have taken and lots of room for interpretation, I was disappointed to see that none of these were explored. Political plays should examine political themes with respect to the current and local social fabric, otherwise what is the point? By re-enacting a play about racism that takes place in a far removed country, without drawing parallels to similar situations in Sydney, I couldn’t help feeling that the point of the play was lost under critical acclaim.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Clybourne Park
By Bruce Norris
Directed by Tanya Goldberg
Cast includes: Paula Arundell, Thomas Campbell, Briallen Clarke, Nathan Lovejoy, Wendy Strehlow, Richard Sydenham and Cleave Williams
Designer: Tobhiyah Stone Feller
Lighting designer: Verity Hampson
Sound designer: Daryl Wallis
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli
www.ensemble.com.au
13 March – 24 April
