Pulitzer Prize winner ‘Clybourne Park’ is a ‘Raisin’ twist

‘Clybourne Park’ by Bruce Norris is a darkly comedic riff on ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ ‘Clybourne’ explores the connection between race and real estate in the North Side of Chicago. Whereas ‘Raisin’ focused entirely on black families subjected to property scams during the 1950s, Norris’ play turns the tables, as a young Caucasian couple moves into what has become a primarily African American community by 2009. It is fitting that the play takes place in the same city I live in; I had almost discounted ‘A Twist of Water,’ another play set in the Windy City, as a contender for the very reason that it was not set in or premiering in New York. Looking into Norris’ history with theater, one would be surprised to see that he actually is more of a Chicagoan than many were probably aware of. Each of his plays — from ‘The Infidel’ in 2000 to ‘A Parallelogram,’ which premiered last summer — was originally staged at the city’s Steppenwolf Theatre. Ironically, only ‘Clybourne Park’ had its world premiere elsewhere. He has won two Jeff Awards (the Chicago Tony equivalent) for best new work, among other awards, both large and small. Most recently, he was awarded with this little thing called the Olivier Award for new play. Like prize winner Tracy Letts before him, Norris is also known for his work as an actor. I, for one, was surprised to find that, upon seeing his picture, I actually recognized him. Remember the stuttering teacher in the M. Night Shyamalan film ‘The Sixth Sense’? Yep. That’s him. He’s come a long way since Haley Joel Osment shouted ‘Stuttering Stanley! Stuttering Stanley!’ in his face. The five jurors this year were Peter Marks (Washington Post), Lynn Nottage (writer of prizewinning ‘Ruined’), David Savran (theater professor, City University of New York), Steven Leigh Morris (LA Weekly) and Chris Jones (Chicago Tribune). Some might try to cheapen Norris’ win by commenting on the fact that one of the chosen critics and the playwright in the jury were from Chicago. But I actually don’t think that matters. After all, at the end of the day, the play was a New York production. Norris is a deserving winner, albeit a predictable one.

What I am surprised by are the other two finalists: ‘Detroit’ by Lisa D’Amour and ‘A Free Man of Color’ by John Guare. The former is a Chicago production at Norris’ home turf, Steppenwolf Theatre, that was virtually forgotten as soon as it closed. The latter is the only Broadway play of the lot and was a box-office and critical flop. I have seen neither, but I almost certainly expected different titles to be in the mix. John Logan’s ‘Red’ was a terrific two-person play that, some of you might know, reads tremendously on the page, no doubt because of Logan’s background in short fiction and screenwriting. Donald Margulies’ ‘Time Stands Still,’ which he prevented submitting in 2010 because of changes he hoped to make, was not a very interesting text in my opinion but was the sort of writing that the jury usually devours. Amy Herzog’s ‘After the Revolution’ was the kind of little-known, esoteric play that I thought for sure the jurors would swoon for. And the Kander and Ebb musical ‘Scottsboro Boys’ was an examination of race in the face of a nearly unspeakable crime — but set to some catchy tunes. Suffice to say, in a year when plenty of Broadway fare was ripe for the picking, the jury chose to look elsewhere. In a wide-open race like this, the advisory board has been known to throw up its hands and declare ‘no award.’ To give the prize to a man who has written several plays for Chicago theater and also acted a fair amount and has only just now extended his reach to NYC, the jury and board seemed to demonstrate a wide gaze this time around. I don’t know if ‘Clybourne Park’ will be hitting the Great White Way in the next year or two, but I do think that Bruce Norris will be a name to look out for.