Clybourne Park

Directed By: Rob Ellis
Written By: Bruce Norris
Presented By: Tower Theatre Company

Surely the funniest play to be released within the last ten years, Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park took the world by storm when it was released. Opening off-Broadway in 2010, it transferred to the UK in 2011, first to the Royal Court, then moving to the West End, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play the following year. From there it transferred back to Broadway, winning both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2011 and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012. Clybourne Park is a spin-off from the 1959 drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, whose final work Les Blancs played at the National Theatre earlier this year.

It's 1959 and a black family have purchased a property on the inherently white Clybourne Street. It's 2009, and the same property is being rebuilt by a white family in the now black neighbourhood. In both cases uproar ensues. Clybourne Park is an outrageous satire that discusses the effects of gentrification, racism, and the evolution of community throughout time. It is one of the most iconic pieces of theatre written this century.