African-Americans have federally sanctioned civil rights and the nation voted a black man into the White House. So we must have made substantial advances towards racial equality and co-existence since Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 stage drama, A Raisin in the Sun, haven’t we?
Not necessarily, suggests playwright-provocateur Bruce Norris in his cynical satire Clybourne Park, which takes Hansberry’s work and stands it on its ear. Act one is set inside the Chicago house that the unseen Younger family is trying to buy, despite the objections of the bigoted white neighbors. Then in the second act, the play jumps ahead 50 years to show the house deteriorating, yet an affluent yuppie couple want to buy it to tear it down and build a McMansion that would dwarf the surrounding structures.
The racial insensitivities in both acts aim to make theatergoers uncomfortable and the go-for-the-throat cast at the Caldwell Theatre certainly manages that. Director Clive Cholerton has again brought to the area an edgy, challenging new play, married it to a nimble ensemble cast and further dusted off the cobwebs from this established South Florida stage company.
Both acts begin slowly, as Norris traffics in small talk and wordplay, but never doubt that he knows exactly how to bring his simmering stew to a boil. Particularly in the second half, as interested parties gather to read over a petition about the pending sale, polite dialogue degenerates into bitter recriminations and the slinging of pointedly outrageous racial jokes.
The cast members all double in roles as Clybourne Park shifts gears and zooms ahead to 2009. Standouts include Kenneth Kay and Patti Gardner as the too-eager sellers of the house in the first act. Both are reacting to the death of their Korean War veteran son, he by wallowing on anguish and she by blithely denying the problem with a ‘50s sitcom cheerfulness. Gregg Weiner, who played a couple of similar two-sided characters in Florida Stage’s recent Cane, has no civility filter as hatemonger Karl Linder, a supporting character.
Karen Stephens probably goes through the most extreme changes, from Gardner’s subservient maid to Lena, an assertive woman who knows how to flex her power muscles. And Margery Lowe gives one of her best comic performances as two different pregnant wives. Her first act character is hearing-impaired, possibly so Norris can make a point about communications difficulties or maybe just to make fun of the deaf.
With Clybourne Park, Norris shows he can sustain a tone of raucousness, while also delivering a thematic message. He may well offend some of the Caldwell audience, but those in synch with him should find plenty to laugh at and think about here.
CLYBOURNE PARK, Caldwell Theatre Co., 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Continuing through Sunday, Feb. 6. Tickets: $27-$75. Call: (561) 241-7432 or (877) 245-7432.
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GableStage usually features edgier fare than playwright-director Jane Prowse’s audience-friendly tale of a sexagenarian’s search for, well, sex, A Round-Heeled Woman. But perhaps the Coral Gables company is experimenting with ways to broaden its audience as it considers moving to larger quarters in Coconut Grove, and who in his right mind would turn down an opportunity to showcase the remarkable Sharon Gless?
Gless, best known for her television work from Cagney & Lacey to Burn Notice, knows a good vehicle when she sees it. For some time now, she has been shepherding this memoir of former teacher Jane Juska from page to stage. In it, she gives such a touching and funny performance, fully inhabiting the character, often with a startling lack of vanity, in one of those rare ideal mergers of actress and role.
Having given up on finding Mr. Right, 66-year-old, long celibate Juska places an ad in the New York Review of Books seeking a man interested in having sex with her. She adds, “If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” Of course she meant Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, but the reference gets much misunderstood by her respondents, as the play goes through the inevitable series of disastrous matches.
Gless dominates the production as she frequently confides her feelings to the audience, but this is by no means a one-woman show. The rest of the six-member cast all play multiple roles, from Juska’s disapproving and a little scandalized friends (Laura Turnbull, Kim Ostrenko), the unsuitable suitors (Stephen G. Anthony, Howard Elfman) and Antonio Amadeo as Juska’s estranged son and a persistent would-be lover half her age. Ostrenko and Amadeo also play characters from a Trollope novel who float through the play, reminding Juska how different literature is from life.
The play has nuggets of wisdom about not giving up on life and reaching for second chances, but the reason tickets are selling so briskly is Gless. Performances have just been extended a week to Feb. 6, so consider this a second chance you have just been offered.
A ROUND-HEELED WOMAN, GableStage, Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables. Through Sunday, Feb. 6. Tickets: $37.50-$45. Call: (305) 445-1119.