Clybourne Park: Old Problems, New Vision

Clybourne Park, written by Bruce Norris, is a modern play that serves as a bit of a spiritual sequel to Lorraine Hansberry's classic play A Raisin in the Sun. Taking place in two different centuries between two acts, it discusses the issue of the Younger family moving into a predominantly white neighborhood. But it doesn't stop there; it approaches the issues of racism and property values directly, both in the 1950's and in modern society.

A new production of this play for the year 2012 would have to be an interesting one, but handled carefully. While it is a shame to admit, the issues discussed in this play are indeed alive and well in the world today. So the audience for this play would need to be as carefully chosen as the directorial vision and the era costumes.

The ideal place for this play would be somewhere in the world with as diverse an audience as possible, preferably where the issue of racism is still familiar. Leading us obviously to the United States, where the play takes place, we could choose from any multitude of theatres around the country. According to a 2002 TIME magazine article by Ron Stodghill and Amanda Bower, and a 2011 Top Ten list on cnbc.com, the most diverse area of the country lies between Sacramento and Los Angeles, California. And smack in-between, at the corner of Roseville Road and Palm Avenue in Sacramento, is the Arden Playhouse.

The beautiful Arden Playhouse auditorium (courtesy of www.ardenplayhouse.com)

While it is a small theatre (seating only approximately one hundred people) it has the advantage of being away from Hollywood, where aesthetic can be so easily damned or overblown. While the size is regrettable, the stage is perfect. It is a flat stage that does not at all jut out into the audience. While this could provide some difficulty in the visual department, being that there are a total of seven actors in the play, it does create the perfect aesthetic of distance. So few of the characters in the play are even innocent, much less in the right, that it is difficult to identify with any of them at all. And the physical distance from the audience allows us to examine the characters and their twisted statements

Rather than what is suggested of the play, this director considers Clybourne Park less a dark comedy than a damning, depressing view of the seething cauldron beneath interracial cultures that is, regrettably, still bubbling today. It tears away a well-worn cloth revealing the horrible shame that America has carried for over 200 years, and should be sold as doing so.
Through the play, we learn that Russ and Bev's son Kenneth served in the Korean war. And through Russ's defense of his son, it can be gleaned that Russ also saw combat, whether in World War 2 or perhaps Korea as well. And so the placement of a worn flag among the stacks of boxes in the first act would not be out of place. The walls, while pristine in the first act and crumbled/cracked in the second, would be a bland gray-green to emphasize the grim, lifeless attitude of the play. As an added bit of detail, an empty, cracked flowerpot could be placed on the ground in the second act, paying homage to the Younger family's untouched residence in the house, and reiterating the dismal attitude of the play. It would contrast the hope represented by Lena Younger's potted plant in A Raisin in the Sun.

Lighting design would be done fairly simply. Both Acts of the play take place between 3pm and 4pm, so the lights of the day would be fairly bright. However in place of yellower lights to represent sunlight, bare white light would be used as a sort of expository measure. In the first act it would emphasize the mess and emptiness of the house as Russ and Bev attempt to move out. In the second act, it would expose the poor, beat-down condition of the house 50 years later. Peeled paint, cracked drywall, and worn would being the motif.

In addition to the background, the costumes for the characters would also be somewhat muted. Russ is in nothing but an undershirt and slacks with suspenders for the majority of his stage time, but proper 1950's attire requires long skirts and suits with slacks. Each of the suits would be a mix of dull gray and faded blue, and the dress (worn by Bev) would also be a worn color.

A men's tweed suit
(courtesy of rustyzipper.com) and a woman's housedress (courtesy of polyvore.com)

In the first Act, Jim would be given a slightly lighter suit, representing the religious aspect of the play that ultimately has no effect other than to badger the characters and worsen the issue. Betsy on the other hand, possibly the one and only innocent character of the play, would be given a slightly cheerier dress (preferably a relatively light blue floral print) to represent the hope for the future in the child within her. However this will be one of the few bright spots in the film. While Lindsey in the second act is also pregnant, her attire will be a simpler white dress, mirroring more of Jim's sanctimonious essence from the first act than Betsy's.

The final aspect would be the sound. Specific attention must be given here, due to the nature of the writing of a play. Several moments involve more than one (if not all) of the characters speaking at the same time. Both the actors themselves and the microphone managers in the booth would be required to give special attention to these overlapping lines in that they are both very pronounced, but also somewhat muted. These lines in the test are little more than babbling, and so the volume would be reduced to fit that, allowing the relevant, punctuating dialogue to stand out. The church bell that tolls in both acts would also be a target of this pronunciation, so that it may overlap the arguing whilst also sounding far away, in another part of the neighborhood.
Finally, the play both begins and ends on a song played on the radio. In both cases the mood is quite sullen, or at least inert, and it requires a slow 50's song of medial-to-sad mood. Of course, for the purposes of the stage, the music volume would also be fairly lowered, so as to not overpower the scene or the dialogue. To add to the sunken mood as well as the quality of the radio in the 1950's, I have selected a grainy recording of Johnnie Ray's "Cry" from 1952 as an example.