{"id":245780,"date":"2013-02-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/serious-subject-in-a-raging-comedy\/"},"modified":"2013-02-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T08:00:00","slug":"serious-subject-in-a-raging-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/serious-subject-in-a-raging-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious subject in a raging comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Clybourne Park\u2019
\nWHERE: San Diego REP, 79 Horton Plaza (Downtown)
\nWHEN: Sun., Tues. and Wed. 7 p.m., Thurs. \u2013 Sat. 8 p.m. through Feb. 10
\nINFO: 619-544-1000
\nWEB: sdrep.org<\/p>\n

Not to be missed, \u2018Clybourne Park\u2019 is emblematic of the REP\u2019s fine work of late<\/p>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge | Cr\u00edtico de Teatro SDUN<\/p>\n

\"Serious
(l to r) Matt Orduna and Monique Gaffney (Photo by Daren Scott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuing through Feb. 10 at San Diego Repertory Theatre, Bruce Norris\u2019 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning \u201cClybourne Park\u201d <\/em>is\u00a0excellent, masterfully staged by Artistic Director Sam Woodhouse, and sports an\u00a0acting ensemble that is absolutely divine. Despite its serious subject matter, the play is a raging comedy.<\/p>\n

Near the end of Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s 1959 \u201cA Raisin in the Sun,\u201d a Clybourne Park homeowner\u2019s association member named Karl visits the matriarchal Lena and her family on Chicago\u2019s South Side to persuade them not to move into the white suburb.<\/p>\n

In Bruce Norris\u2019 \u201cClybourne Park,\u201d set in 1959 and 2009 in the home Lena purchased, the playwright explores Karl\u2019s there-goes-the-neighborhood attitude, and posits that the Caucasian homeowner in \u201cRaisin\u201d acted on his own. In Act One scenes involving other Clybourne Park homeowners, the audience also learns why Russ (Mark Pinter) and his wife Bev (Sandy Campbell) priced their home so inexpensively that Lena could afford to buy it.<\/p>\n

Seated amid their packing boxes, the inert and argumentative Russ eats Neapolitan ice cream, which precipitates a discussion of the word Neapolitan. Russ is still tortured by the death of his and Bev\u2019s son, over two years ago. She is at wit\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Enter the inept, terrified Rev. Jim (Jason Maddy), who has come to offer counsel. Enter Karl and his deaf, immensely pregnant wife, Betsy (Amanda Leigh Cobb), whom he wants to protect from the incursion of \u201ccolored people.\u201d Already present is Bev\u2019s African-American maid, Francine (Monique Gaffney), who is soon joined by her husband, Albert (Matt Ordu\u00f1a).<\/p>\n

\"Serious
(l to r) Sandy Campbell, Mark Pinter and Monique Gaffney (Photo by Daren Scott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What begins calmly enough, hilariously evolves into fisticuffs by the end of the first act. We are in the presence of a masterful, amazingly tight ensemble.<\/p>\n

In Act Two, set in Lena\u2019s now derelict home 50 years later, the same actors take on an entirely different set of multifaceted characters, some related by blood to previous generations. The underlying theme is still racism.<\/p>\n

Purchasers Steve and Lindsey (Heil and Cobb) hope to modify the house by building up. Their plans are under scrutiny of the homeowner\u2019s association members, played by Campbell, Gaffney, Maddy and Ordu\u00f1a. Pinter portrays a workman, digging under the crepe myrtle in the backyard. His character could be straight out of Shakespeare, and so could all these rich and multi-layered characters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Clybourne Park\u2019 WHERE: San Diego REP, 79 Horton Plaza (Downtown) WHEN: Sun., Tues. and Wed. 7 p.m., Thurs. \u2013 Sat. 8 p.m. through Feb. 10 INFO: 619-544-1000 WEB: sdrep.org Not to be missed, \u2018Clybourne Park\u2019 is emblematic of the REP\u2019s fine work of late By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Serious subject in a raging comedy","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}