Clybourne Park

Set in the world of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp new satire that takes a hilarious, yet unflinching look at race and real estate in America. Its explosive combination of ferocious truth-telling and laugh out loud entertainment has not only garnered a list of supreme honors – including the Tony Award, Olivier Award and Pulitzer Prize for best new play – but has made it one of the most highly produced American plays of the 21st century.

The first act opens on a house in the fictional neighborhood of Clybourne Park. It is 1959, and community leaders are anxiously trying to block the sale of the home to what would be the area’s first African American family. In act two, fifty years have passed, and the tables have turned. It is now 2009, and Clybourne Park is predominantly black. A white family has purchased the house and neighbors are battling to keep the tide of gentrification at bay.