Clybourne Park

Bruce Norris

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781848421783
• eBook ISBN: 9781780010274
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

An acerbically brilliant satire that explores the fault line between race and property. 

In 1959, Russ and Bev are selling their desirable two-bed for a knock-down price, enabling the first black family to move into the neighbourhood and alarming the cosy white urbanites of Clybourne Park, Chicago.

In 2009 the same property is being bought by Lindsey and Steve, a young white couple, whose plan to raze the house and start again is met with a similar response. As the arguments rage and tensions rise, ghosts and racial resentments are once more uncovered...

Bruce Norris's play Clybourne Park was first performed at Playwrights Horizons, New York City, in February 2010. The play received its European premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2010, transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End in February 2011.

The play received numerous awards, including the London Evening Standard Award for Best Play, the Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, the Olivier Award for Best New Play, the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

ACT TWO

September, 2009. Three o’clock, Saturday afternoon. There is an overall shabbiness to the place that was not the case fifty years earlier. The wooden staircase railing has been replaced with a cheaper metal one. The oak mantelpiece and most of the woodwork have been painted over several times, the fireplace opening is bricked in, linoleum covers large areas of the wooden floor and plaster has crumbled from the lath in places. The kitchen door is now missing, and we can see through to an exterior door. The front door stands propped open.

Lights rise to find six people facing each other in a rough circle. To one side, STEVE and LINDSEY with KATHY, and to the other KEVIN and LENA with TOM, all dressed in generic casual clothes for a weekend afternoon. It is warm, and some have iced drinks. LINDSEY is visibly pregnant. They sit upon improvised seating – crates, abandoned furniture, etc. STEVE, LINDSEY and KATHY study photocopied documents while the others watch. Finally:

TOM. Everybody good?

LINDSEY. I’m good.

STEVE. Good by me.

KATHY. Go for it.

TOM. So, I guess we should start right at the top.

STEVE. Question?

TOM. And I know we all got questions.

STEVE. The terminology?

TOM. So let’s go one at a time: Steve.

STEVE. The term frontage?

TOM. Right.

STEVE. Frontage means?

LINDSEY. Where are we looking?

STEVE. First page.

TOM. Frontage means – (Deferring to KATHY.) Did you want to – ?

KATHY (to STEVE). Means the portion facing the street.

TOM. Thus, front.

STEVE (to TOM). Portion of the property?

KATHY (to STEVE). Of the structure.

STEVE (to TOM). Or portion of the structure?

TOM. The facade.

LINDSEY (to STEVE). I’m not seeing it.

KATHY (to LINDSEY). Second paragraph.

TOM (to LINDSEY). Bottom of the page.

STEVE (to LINDSEY). Where it says minimum recess of frontage?

TOM. Meaning, distance from.

KATHY (to TOM). From the edge of the property.

TOM. Exactly.

STEVE. Is what?

TOM. Is the recess.

STEVE. Not the frontage.

TOM (to STEVE). The frontage is what you’re measuring to.

LINDSEY. Got it.

STEVE. I’m confused.

LINDSEY. And edge of the property means as measured from the curb?

KATHY. Correct.

TOM. Not from the sidewalk?

KATHY. From the curb.

TOM. Uhh – I’ll check, but I don’t think that’s right.

KATHY. Up to and including.

TOM. But the sidewalk falls under the easement.

KATHY. Right?

TOM. So if it’s part of the easement then it can’t be part of the property, per se.

KATHY (shaking her head). By definition, the property is inclusive of the easement. The easement is legal passage across the property.

TOM. I don’t think you’re right.

KATHY. So, my understanding has always been –

KEVIN. Sorry, but – Does any of that really matter?

STEVE. It might.

KEVIN. I mean, I don’t see how any of that really – (Continues.)

STEVE (overlapping). The language?

KEVIN. – impacts the outcome of the specific problem that –

STEVE. But I don’t want to get in a situation where we thought we found a solution only to have it turn out we’re screwed because of the language.

TOM. Wait.

LINDSEY (to STEVE). The language is clear to me.

TOM (easily). And who’s being screwed?

STEVE. No no no.

TOM. No one’s screwing any –

STEVE (with a laugh). I didn’t mean like screwed over, I meant like maybe we screwed ourselves.

KEVIN. But how does that address the height issue?

TOM. The elevation.

STEVE (to TOM). But if the elevation is conditional on the perimeter, right?

TOM. That’s the idea.

STEVE. If I’m reading correctly?

LINDSEY. But the perimeter isn’t changing.

STEVE. But we’re saying if it could.

LINDSEY. But we’ve established that it can’t.

STEVE. But let’s say it did.

LINDSEY. But I’m saying it won’t.

STEVE. But I’m saying what if?

LINDSEY. But I’m saying what did we discuss?

KATHY’s cellphone rings.

STEVE (to LINDSEY, with an easy laugh). Okay, but do you have to say it like that?

LINDSEY. Like what?

STEVE. In that ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Original Production
• Dedication
• Characters
• Act One
• Act Two
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information