044 – Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris
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It is 1959 in Chicago and Russ and Bev are moving out of their three-bedroom bungalow at 406 Clybourne Park. The address of their house is important, because it is about to become the first property in the white middle-class neighbourhood of Clybourne Park to be sold to a black family, much to the consternation of some in the local community. The proposed sale of their house sparks heated debate between neighbours, which continues even 50 years later when we meet the next generation who want to purchase Russ and Bev’s property.
This is Bruce Norris’s provocative play, Clybourne Park, which is based on the real-life story of prejudice and persecution originally told in Lorraine Hansbury’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun. Norris’s 2010 play highlights our continuing anxieties and dysfunction over race, our obsession with property ownership, and the challenges of accepting and adapting to changing multi-culturalism in our societies. Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. It received its first UK production at the Royal Court in September 2010, and transferred to the West End in February 2011, winning an Olivier award for Best New Play.
Clybourne Park is currently being revived at the Park Theatre in London in a thought-provoking and corruscatingly funny new production directed by Oliver Kaderbhai. I’m delighted that Oliver has joined me on the podcast to share his insights on this absorbing play.
Oliver Kaderbhai
Oliver Kaderbhai is an actor, director and producer. He graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, in Drama and Theatre Studies, before founding the devising theatre company Delirium.
His credits as a Director include Clybourne Park (Park Theatre), Holes (CSSD), Striking 12 (Union Theatre), Songs of Abdulkarim (59 Productions, Kuwait), Peter Pan (Co-Director, Chichester Festival Theatre), One Minute (The Vaults), The Provoked Wife (Go People), From Where I’m Standing (Pegasus Theatre), Oranges on the Brain (Pegasus Theatre), Go To Your God Like A Soldier (Old Vic Tunnels), and Your Nation Loves You (Old Vic Tunnels).
He was Assistant or Associate Director on Jesus Christ Superstar (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Running Wild (Regents Park Open Air Theatre and UK tour), Guys and Dolls (Playmakers Rep, USA) and Jack & The Beanstalk (Lyric, Hammersmith).
Acting credits include: The Man in the White Suit (West End), Margot, Dame (The Kings Head), The Best Man (West End), Jumping on my Shadow (Lakeside Arts), Hatch (Polka), One Minute (The Vaults), Ignition (Frantic Assembly), Go To Your God Like A Soldier (Underbelly, Edinburgh).
Oliver recommended Downstate by Bruce Norris
The Footnotes to our episode on Clybourne Park include listening for the echoes of the first act in the second half of the play, the small things that reveal the characters’ unconscious bias, and how we define the tribes we belong to.
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067 – Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams
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Tyrell William’s award-winning, debut play Red Pitch is set on an inner-city football pitch in South London. It is a coming-of-age story, with teenage boys fighting to believe in their dreams, and to find a way up, and perhaps out, of their changing community. The play premiered at the Bush Theatre in London in February 2002, winning several awards, and is currently enjoying a sell-out revival at the Bush.
Tyrell Williams, and the show’s director, Daniel Bailey, join me to explore this joyful and poignant new play.
Photo by Helen Murray.
066 – The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
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Martin McDonagh’s 2004 play The Pillowman is an unsettling mix of gruesome fairy tales, child abuse, and murder, overlaid with McDonagh’s signature black humour. McDonagh’s blend of extreme violence and ironic comedy divides opinion, although the popularity of the current revival of the play in London’s West End is testimony to its enduring fascination.
I am joined in this episode by Professor Eamonn Jordan, to help us come to terms with the impact and intent of McDonagh’s work.
065 – Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
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Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame is both an hilarious farce and a biting satire. Written in 1970 as an “act of intervention” in response to the unexplained death of a prisoner in police custody in Milan, it became a huge global hit.
An acclaimed new adaptation that updates the setting and scandal to modern-day Britain is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and I’m delighted to be joined by its writer, Tom Basden, and the director, Daniel Raggett, to talk about their adaptation and the enduring relevance of Fo’s original.
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