Gentrification, race and class are part of the storyline for San Francisco, Oakland and really, every major city during the past decade.

These are also the subjects that drive the comedic play "Clybourne Park," which is making its West Coast debut at the A.C.T. right now.

"Clybourne Park" is a play in two acts by Bruce Norris. In act one, it’s 1959 in Clybourne Park, the fictional neighborhood in Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun." That play was about the Youngers, a black family that spends its savings to buy a house in the all-white Clybourne Park. "Raisin in the Sun" debuted on Broadway in 1959. The play "Clybourne Park" is basically set in the house that the Youngers buy. And the first act is about how the white residents feel upon learning that the Youngers are moving in.

Act II takes place in present day Clybourne Park, which is being gentrified and going from black to white. A white couple, Lindsey and Steve, have bought the Youngers’ house and they’re meeting with a black couple, who are part of the neighborhood zoning committee. The Youngers want to tear down the old house and build a new one. A modern conversation about race and gentrification ensues.

Playwright Bruce Norris has gotten a lot of praise for his work. And the buzz is that the conversations on race and gentrification are uncomfortable, insightful and cutting.

Are they?

Is it ok to laugh at racial jokes? Is it hard to talk about race and class and feel like a good person? Is it hard to offend a white man with racial jokes? The actors in the videos below identified these questions as some of the themes of Clybourne Park.

Click the panels to see some of the most controversial parts of the play and the actors dissecting them.

What do you think? To get the conversation started, here are a few opinions from around the web:

I did not see the play as being about gentrification or “race relations.” It is a comedy about white angst.   -Oakland Local

Clybourne Park "goes for the juglar of p.c. liberals.   -New York Magazine

Clybourne Park is playing at the A.C.T. until February 20, 2011. For more information about the play click here.

This story was produced by Dan Ming and Queena Kim. It’s part of an experimental Citizen Journalism project being piloted by The Bay Citizen. We’ve partnered with the American Conservatory Theater, which helped create a reporting event for our citizen journalists. As part of the program, citizen journalists gained access and experience reporting stories under the guidance of Queena Kim, the Community Editor. The A.C.T. is promoting our Citizen Journalism project in its newsletter and social networks but had no input on the content of this story.