This “spiky and damningly insightful new comedy,” according to the New York Times, begins in a house in a white Chicago neighborhood in 1959 that the owners are selling to an African American family (in fact, the very house the Younger family planned to move into in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun), stirring the outrage of their hilariously horrifying neighbors. Then the story jumps 50 years ahead to the same house, only this time it’s a black family selling to white buyers as the neighborhood flips white again. Written by Bruce Norris and here directed by Portland Center Stage Artistic Director Chris Coleman, the play grapples with the fraught topical issues of identity, race, and gentrification with such wit and entertainment that it won a holy trinity of dramatic awards: a Tony, an Olivier, and a Pulitzer.
"Portland Center Stage outdoes itself with a production that is shining Broadway-excellence across the board (if Sweeney Todd hadn’t been so devilishly good, I’d have no qualms saying this is the best big production of the season). Chris Coleman’s direction is as sharp as the dialogue, moving characters through what amounts to two extended single scenes with economy and zest while using stylized blocking details to capture the spirits of the times (the stretching by the female lawyer at the start of act two elicited particular guffaws)." Read our full review on our Culturephile blog.
Somewhere in Time
Sign up for Our Free Email Newsletters
