I caught the opening night of the Cincinnati Playhouse's production of Clybourne Park last night. The play won the theater triple crown: Tony for best play on Broadway, Olivier for best play in London, and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It's being staged by a lot of big theaters this season, but you need go no farther than Mount Adams to see what all the fuss is about. And there is a ton of fussing in Bruce Norris's script. He took his inspiration from the events of Lorraine Hansberry's historic 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, the story of a black family seeking to improve its lot by buying a home — in a previously all-white neighborhood. Clybourne Park's first act looks at the same events from the neighborhood's perspective; Act II jumps ahead 50 years to the same neighborhood, deteriorated but coming back. Curiously enough — or is it predictably? — many of the stresses and strains have only moved from one set of people to another. Norris's clever script subtly presents parallels and contrasts, with some humor and some pathos, and a sardonic sense that human nature is what it is. The Playhouse does a great job with a cast that plays different roles (some slightly connected from past to present) and a revolving set that recreates the house at 406 Clybourne in Chicago in 1959 and 2009. This production will spur lots of thoughtful and spirited conversation. Onstage through Feb. 16. Tickets: 513-421-3888.
Pluto at Know Theatre is being staged by former artistic director Jason Bruffy. Steve Yockey's unusual script blurs the line between real life and mythology, as weird events materialize in a suburban kitchen, what with a talking three-headed dog and other unusual phenomena getting in the way of necessary dialogue between a mom and her sullen son. It opens tonight and runs through Feb. 22. Tickets: 513-300-5669.
I don't mean to sound like a broken record — I've mentioned the following productions before — but several shows are here a bit longer that are definitely worth considering:
