San Franciscans know how controversial real estate can be. Especially when you toss race relations into the bidding process. Transmuting the events of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun into a fresh new tale, Clybourne Park starts in 1959 when a white couple sells their home to a black family. Fifty years later, the same house is being sold by a black family in what is now a predominantly black neighborhood. Humans are cyclical creatures, and the hilarious and squirm-inducing debate seems alarmingly familiar half a century later.
Collecting accolades since it debuted last year, Bruce Norris's brilliant comedy Clybourne Park is written in what director Jonathon Moscone calls a “combination of piercing intelligence, genuine emotion, and sharp-edged humor.” Everyone else in the world just calls it awesome. Entertainment Weekly says it’s "completely audacious, architecturally ingenious entertainment," and The New York Times calls it "a spiky and damningly insightful new comedy." New York Magazine says the subject matter "goes for the jugular of P.C. liberals."
Through February 13. American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary Street. Tickets start at $10 at 415-749-2228 or act-sf.org.