Clybourne Park at First Presbyterian Theater

The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race and gentrification. Two scenes, set fifty years apart, are both set in the same modest bungalow on Chicago’s northwest side. In both instances, a community showdown takes place, pitting race against real estate with this home as the battle ground.

Clybourne Park unfolds in two acts in the house made famous in Lorraine Hansberry’s classic “A Raisin in the Sun.” In Act I, a white community in 1959 Chicago splinters over a black family about to move into the house. Act II leaps forward to 2009, where a white couple seeks to purchase the same house in the now predominantly black neighborhood. Norris’ play explores issues of race, territory, and legacy with an uncommon combination of biting humor and genuine tenderness, treading the rich and illuminating ground of both comedy and drama. Rated PG-13.