Adam Smith Theatre,
Kirkcaldy
Four Stars
It’s a case of whoops,
there goes the neighbourhood twice over in Rapture Theatre’s revival of Bruce
Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which opens in 1959 in the same Chicago
suburb where Lorraine Hansberry’s drama, A Raisin in the Sun, which appeared
that year, is set. Here, Robin Kingsland’s Russ and his wife Bev, played by
Jackie Morrison, are preparing to move out of their now almost empty des-res following
a family tragedy.
Unknown to them, the
bargain basement price tag has enabled a black family to move in, with Jack
Lord’s uptight Karl a self-appointed spokesperson for the entire ‘hood. Russ
and Bev’s black maid Francine (Adelaide Obeng) and her husband Albert (Vinta
Morgan), meanwhile, bear witness to a barrage of everyday racism. Fast forward
half a century, and a white family are trying to buy the same house, albeit
with a heap of proposed changes which the black couple representing the block’s
now much more diverse community aren’t too keen on.
As Norris’ deceptively
Arthur Milleresque set-up gives way to an increasingly charged critique of
ever-changing values, the civilised walls of Ken Harrison’s suburban set are
similarly reconstructed in Michael Emans’ tight-knit revival. Seen today, the
play has an air of prophecy, however polite the discourse now appears in light
of the recent normalising of what was once unacceptable language.
Emans’ cast of eight
square up to each other with increasing fervour as they shout each other down. The
doubling up across the decades is particularly telling, with Lord’s latter-day
buyer Steve sporting a cap just waiting to be branded with a Make America Great
Again logo.
One of the things Norris
highlights is how real estate is embedded in capitalist philosophy, with the
ebbs and flows of the marketplace fostering a boom-and-bust style of
gentrification. In the end, however, it’s the house’s oldest ghosts that talk
the loudest in a devastating exposure of the fragile foundations of tolerance
and the illusion of liberty that goes with it.
The Herald, September 30th 2019
ends
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