Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama, 'A Raisin in the Sun'― set to good Reviews!
Set on Chicago's South Side, A Raisin in the Sun revolved around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family:
Playbill.com offers a behind-the-scenes look at opening night of the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun,― cast of the new;
son Walter Lee (Denzel Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins) and matriarch Lena, called Mama (LaTanya Richardson Jackson). When her deceased husband’s money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago.
Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window:
Hansberry gave this country its most moving authentic portrayal of black family life in the inner city. The Sing in Sidney Brustein's Window provides an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice.
After a successful run on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun came to film in 1961, offering a snapshot of an urban, working-class, African-American family at a turning point in their lives.
The film powerfully conveys the inter-familial and inter-generational conflicts that arise out of different hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Set in the 1940s, but filmed just as America was beginning its civil rights movement, the film draws its intelligent dialogue from the complex questions facing a racial minority in an environment in which the effects of prejudice are always percolating just beneath the surface.
The story examines such serious generational and racial issues as assimilation and the conflicts between idealism, the pursuit of the American dream, and pride in one's racial and cultural heritage. The cramped and claustrophobic apartment setting reminds us of the film's theatrical roots, but it also serves the movie's themes well, and director Daniel Petrie keeps the camera moving, even if the setting and action are static.
The issue of racism is handled relatively subtly, quietly insinuating itself into the situation rather than slamming you in the face. There is some unevenness in the performances, as some of the actors from the stage production still seem to be projecting to the back row of the theater, but Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee lead the cast with their charismatic presences.
Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before
A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.
Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."
"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic." This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff
Progressive Beginnings:
Originally produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.
Widely acclaimed, it helped pave the way for other black playwrights. She completed only two plays in her short life, but left unfinished works that published posthumously, extended her contribution to literature, theater, and the Civil Rights Movement.
A potent new Broadway production that reaffirms ‘Raisins’ place in the pantheon of great American drama.―The Washington Post
A Raisin in the Sun belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey into Night.” The New York Times has hailed it as “the play that changed American theatre forever.”
Hansberry introduced the lives of ordinary African Americans into our national theatrical repertory.
Hansberry tells her own life story in an autobiography that rings with the voice of its creator. "Brilliantly alive."--The New York Times
The young Lorraine Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights. She passed away at the young age of 34.
“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.” ―
Lorraine Hansberry
#TheREVIEW Accommodates Many Voices. Thanks for Reading.
Set on Chicago's South Side, A Raisin in the Sun revolved around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family:
Playbill.com offers a behind-the-scenes look at opening night of the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun,― cast of the new;
son Walter Lee (Denzel Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins) and matriarch Lena, called Mama (LaTanya Richardson Jackson). When her deceased husband’s money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago.
Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window:
Hansberry gave this country its most moving authentic portrayal of black family life in the inner city. The Sing in Sidney Brustein's Window provides an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice.
After a successful run on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun came to film in 1961, offering a snapshot of an urban, working-class, African-American family at a turning point in their lives.
The film powerfully conveys the inter-familial and inter-generational conflicts that arise out of different hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Set in the 1940s, but filmed just as America was beginning its civil rights movement, the film draws its intelligent dialogue from the complex questions facing a racial minority in an environment in which the effects of prejudice are always percolating just beneath the surface.
The story examines such serious generational and racial issues as assimilation and the conflicts between idealism, the pursuit of the American dream, and pride in one's racial and cultural heritage. The cramped and claustrophobic apartment setting reminds us of the film's theatrical roots, but it also serves the movie's themes well, and director Daniel Petrie keeps the camera moving, even if the setting and action are static.
The issue of racism is handled relatively subtly, quietly insinuating itself into the situation rather than slamming you in the face. There is some unevenness in the performances, as some of the actors from the stage production still seem to be projecting to the back row of the theater, but Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee lead the cast with their charismatic presences.
Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before
A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.
Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."
"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic." This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff
Progressive Beginnings:
Originally produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play.
Widely acclaimed, it helped pave the way for other black playwrights. She completed only two plays in her short life, but left unfinished works that published posthumously, extended her contribution to literature, theater, and the Civil Rights Movement.
A potent new Broadway production that reaffirms ‘Raisins’ place in the pantheon of great American drama.―The Washington Post
A Raisin in the Sun belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey into Night.” The New York Times has hailed it as “the play that changed American theatre forever.”
Hansberry introduced the lives of ordinary African Americans into our national theatrical repertory.
Hansberry tells her own life story in an autobiography that rings with the voice of its creator. "Brilliantly alive."--The New York Times
The young Lorraine Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights. She passed away at the young age of 34.
“Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.” ―
Lorraine Hansberry
#TheREVIEW Accommodates Many Voices. Thanks for Reading.
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