Overacting obscures powerful dialogue

We might like to believe that our nation’s troubling history of racial prejudice has been addressed and filed comfortably away in the 20th century, but Chicago playwright Bruce Norris says, "Not so fast."

Manoa Valley Theatre’s production of his "Clybourne Park" brings up thought-provoking questions that are particularly timely in light of the Donald Sterling controversy and the ensuing debate over race in America.

The play captured a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2011 and a Tony Award for best play the following year as its surprising social relevance caught the attention of New York audiences and critics. With this Hawaii premiere, local theatergoers are invited to gauge its impact.

Many remember Lorraine Hansberry’s classic 1959 play "A Raisin in the Sun" (currently in a second Broadway revival). The story concerns an African-American family that aspires to a better life and decides to use insurance money to buy a house in the fictional all-white Chicago neighborhood of Clybourne Park.

Norris picks up where Hansberry left off. The first act convenes in the 1959 living room of the white home sellers, Bev and Russ Stoller. Uninvited neighbors arrive, pressuring them to stop the sale and preserve property values, but they persevere, haunted by the memories of their military son’s upstairs suicide and how the neighbors had treated him.

In Act 2, 50 years have passed, and the neighborhood has become an African-American community. The same living room finds a black couple negotiating a settlement with a white couple intent on property redevelopment.

In both acts emotions brew, bubble and eventually boil over. The play asks, Is political correctness merely a ruse to mask lingering racist attitudes? The ending concludes that demographic changes do not always signal change in social thoughts and behaviors.

"Clybourne Park" presents the battlefields of race and class discrimination, marital disharmony and more. Billed as a comedy-drama, the intense interactions of the characters are laced with smart witticisms, tasteless jokes and uncomfortably familiar cliches.

The seven cast members dive into their psychologically loaded dual roles, though acting styles diverge. Each actor has inspired moments, but the brashness, edginess and bravado of various characters is occasionally too over-the-top for believability, turning human beings into caricatures.

The subtler choices, particularly Therese Olival’s charming take on Betsy, the deaf wife of the play’s antagonist, Karl, and Greg Hunt’s two "husband" roles prove most effective. The cast’s gargantuan efforts are admirable, yet the show’s dialogue is occasionally lost in histrionics, though the script speaks powerfully.

Guest director Vanita Rae Smith beautifully orchestrates the stage action. Karen Archibald’s living room set reflects the family’s once-warm ambience — wooden floors, Oriental rugs, ruffled curtains, a mantle — disturbed by boxes for moving, and frames a poignant moment for Bev (Miriam Neuman) and Russ (Adam LeFebvre) as Act 1 ends. By the second act the home’s visible signs of decay reveal the battleground it has become.

"Clybourne Park" provides both a look at history and the hypocrisy and judgmental attitudes that can undermine both interracial and interpersonal relationships. Norris’ play dynamically places these issues onstage for examination and soul-searching.

Jane Kerns is a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, holds degrees in theater and vocal performance, and has performed as an actor and singer in New York.