Clybourne Park

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play (2012), Olivier Award for Best New Play (2011) and Pulitzer Drama Prize (2011), Bruce Norris’s acclaimed black (and white) comedy Clybourne Park is set to have its South African premiere at the Fugard Theatre this year. The production will be directed by Greg Karvellas (Bad Jews). Set design is by Saul Radomsky (Shadow of the Hummingbird, Orpheus in Africa), and Costume design is by Birrie Le Roux (West Side Story, Orpheus in Africa).

Scathingly funny and uncomfortably honest, Bruce Norris’s hilarious script explores the fault line between race and property.

It’s 1959, and Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bedroom Chicago Bungalow in Clybourne Park, which enables the first black family to move into the neighbourhood, creating ripples of discontent amongst the cosy white suburbanites of Clybourne Park. Fast forward to 2009, the same property is being bought by a young white couple, Lindsey and Steve, whose plan to raze and redevelop the house stir similar echoes of unhappiness in the now all-black community.

Clybourne Park is an inspired response to Lorraine Hansberry’s renowned play, A Raisin in the Sun, with that play’s protagonists, The Youngers, as the young black family moving to Clybourne Park.