Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” has been called one of the most influential of the 20th Century: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” And there’s more, ending with the startling, famous line “Or does it explode?”
Theatrical Outfit is opening its new season with “A Raisin in the Sun,” which has been extended through Oct. 6. The classic American play written by Lorraine Hansberry opened on Broadway in 1959. The story tells of a Black American family’s attempt to improve their financial circumstances while facing housing discrimination, racism and assimilation.
But it is Ms. Hansberry’s focus on the family – their quirks, feistiness, humor, and love – that capture an audience’s mind and heart.
The Youngers are a working-class family living on Chicago’s South Side during the 1950’s. As we discuss them, one cannot help marveling at the timeliness of the play: Here we are in an election year with much talk about the middle class.
Lena Younger (Jen Harper) is the head of the household; her two grown children are Walter Lee Younger (Amari Cheatom) and Beneatha (Aleigha Burt). Travis Younger (Shamar Rasha Hill) is the young son of Walter and Ruth (Cynthia D. Barker).
Everyone is waiting for the arrival of the late Mr. Younger’s (Lena’s husband) $10,000 insurance check – more money than any of them has ever seen. But what will happen then?
Walter wants to take his father’s insurance money and buy a liquor store; his mother Lena is not too keen on that idea. She insists that a portion of the money must be set aside for Beneatha, who wants to be a doctor. Ruth, like everyone, wants to move to a new house.
The family receives a visit from a representative of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association (played by Doyle Reynolds) informing them in carefully couched words that Black families are not welcome in the neighborhood Lena and the family wish to move to.
I will only say that although Hansberry is very much interested in the politics of Black advancement, she lets Lena have the final word in a beautiful speech that begins: “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.”
Every actor I have mentioned is polished and delivers a noteworthy performance. Director Robert John Connor, though accomplished, could pick up the pace at times, as well elicit a bit more vocal force. The play ran over three hours the night I saw it; that’s a bit long.
Cheers to Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay’s scenic design; once again they’re excellent.
Hansberry’s loss to the American stage is incalculable. In 1959, when she was only 29-years-old, Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. She was only 34 when she succumbed to pancreatic cancer. She was also the first Black playwright and youngest American to receive the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play.
If she had lived longer, what might she have wrought? Go see her masterwork.
For tickets and more information, visit theatricaloutfit.org.
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