The revival of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin the Sun" , first seen on Broadway in 1954, currently running at the Footlight Club--America's oldest community theatre-- is a solid performance of an American classic. Director Heather Fry has captured the essence of this family drama with roots stretching back to Ibsen at least, grounded in the tradition of realistic playwriting. The play's title comes from Langston Hughes' eloquent short poem, "A Dream Deferred."
The ensemble cast, led by Steven M. Key as Walter Lee Younger, who starts out as a frustrated chauffeur desperate for his "piece of the pie. Key was seen as Colin Powell in Zeitgeist's production of "Stuff Happens" last fall. His wife, Ruth, played by Daria Johnson, who works as a domestic, manages the family affairs, including the regimen of getting them all to the communal bathroom in their ghetto apartment on Chicago's South Side in time to leave for work or school. Walter's mother, indomitable Lena played by Dosha Ellis Beard, waits for her husband's life-insurance check while keeping one and all to the straight and narrow, from which her children, Walter and Beneatha could easily stray. Her daughter, played by Karimah Saida Moreland, has dreams and is going to college planning to become a doctor.
Indeed, Beneatha has two beaus from college; well-to-do frat-boy George Murchison, played in white shoes by Eric Daley and a Nigerian, reserved Joseph Asagai, played by Emmett Ernest Bell-Sykes. The latter eventually proposes that she emigrate back to Africa with him. If her grandmother Lena represents the solid virtues of the older generation, Beneatha is first phase of a burgeoning Black consciousness, which may come to include Travis, Ruth and Walter's young son, played by Nahshon E. Rosenfeld.
The difficult daily grind of the Younger's is upset when the check arrives. Walter Lee has been hoping to "borrow" the 10,000 dollars to go into partnership with several unsavory friends to open a liquor store. Beneatha has been counting on at least her father's insurance for her education. Lena has a more ambitious use for her money. She intends to buy her family a house. And when she finally does so, it's in a white working class suburb, for the simple reason that houses are cheaper there than in segregated neighborhoods. Opposition inevitably arrives in the person of Sam Botsford as Karl Linder, a representative of the neighborhood improvement association, ready to buy back the property. Sam incidentally is Nahshon's uncle.
Meanwhile Lena has given her son two-thirds of the money; one-third to go in a savings account for his sister's education, 1/3 into a family checking account to relieve the pressure of living hand-to-mouth, especially since Ruth is pregnant again. Predictably, Walter goes ahead with his investment plans, to disastrous results, which befall on the Younger's moving day. His first reaction is to call Mr. Linder and take up the Association's offer. The result of this confrontation leads to the play's turning point climax which was the primary reason for its successful two-year Broadway run.
While this cast may not be quite up to the original which included Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gosset Jr., Lonnie Elder III, and Douglas Turner Ward, with Ossie Davis replacing Poitier, all under the direction of Lloyd Richards, this current ensemble is impressive. Andrea Richard's '50s costuming is appropriate, Steve Orr's set has a shabby feel of a small apartment cut from a larger one, while Jon Bonner's lighting is effective. The Footlight Club should consider reviving Hansberry's "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" sometime soon.
ARCHIVE