Summary Raisin In The Sun

1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sunday
Showtime-edition publication (Random Business firm 1959)
Written by	Lorraine Hansberry
Characters	Walter Younger Ruth Younger Beneatha Younger Travis Younger Lena Younger (Mama) George Murchison Joseph Asagai Karl Lindner Mrs. Johnson Moving Men
Appointment premiered	March 11, 1959 (1959-03-11)
Place premiered	Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Original linguistic communication	English language
Genre	Domestic drama
Setting	South Side, Chicago

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959.^[ane] The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (besides known every bit "A Dream Deferred"^[2]) by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a Black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout post-obit the decease of the father, and deals with matters of housing discrimination, racism, and absorption. The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such every bit The Independent ^[3] and Time Out ^[iv] accept listed it among the best plays ever written.

Plot [edit]

Walter and Ruth Younger, their son Travis, along with Walter'south mother Lena (Mama) and Walter's younger sister Beneatha, alive in poverty in a run-down two-chamber flat on Chicago's Due south Side. Walter is barely making a living as a limousine driver. Though Ruth is content with their lot, Walter is not, and desperately wishes to become wealthy. His programme is to invest in a liquor store in partnership with Willy and Bobo, his street-smart acquaintances.

At the beginning of the play, Walter Lee and Beneatha'southward father has recently died, and Mama (Lena) is waiting for a life insurance cheque for $ten,000. Walter has a sense of entitlement to the money, but Mama has religious objections to alcohol, and Beneatha has to remind him it is Mama'southward call how to spend it. Eventually, Mama puts some of the money down on a new house, choosing an all-white neighborhood over a Black one for the practical reason that it is much cheaper. Later on she relents and gives the remaining $half-dozen,500 to Walter to invest, with the provision that he reserve $iii,000 for Beneatha'southward education. Walter gives all of the money to Willy, who takes it and flees, depriving Walter and Beneatha of their dreams, though non the Youngers of their new domicile. Bobo reports the bad news virtually the money. Meanwhile, Karl Lindner, a white representative of the neighborhood they plan to motility to, makes a generous offer to buy them out. He wishes to avoid neighborhood tensions over an interracial population, which to the three women's horror Walter bitterly prepares to accept as a solution to their financial setback. Lena says that while money was something they try to piece of work for, they should never have it if it was a person's way of telling them they were not fit to walk the same earth as them.

Meanwhile, Beneatha's character and management in life are influenced by two different men who are potentially love interests: her wealthy and educated young man George Murchison, and Joseph Asagai. Neither man is actively involved in the Youngers' financial ups and downs. George represents the "fully alloyed Black man" who denies his African heritage with a "smarter than thou" attitude, which Beneatha finds disgusting, while dismissively mocking Walter's situation. Joseph, a Yoruba educatee from Nigeria, patiently teaches Beneatha about her African heritage; he gives her thoughtfully useful gifts from Africa while pointing out she is unwittingly assimilating herself into white ways. She straightens her hair, for case, which he characterizes equally "mutilation".

When Beneatha becomes distraught at the loss of the coin, she is scolded by Joseph for her materialism. She eventually accepts his bespeak of view that things will get improve with effort, along with like-minded to consider his proposal of matrimony and invitation to move with him to Nigeria to practice medicine.

Walter is oblivious to the stark contrast between George and Joseph: his pursuit of wealth tin be attained only by liberating himself from Joseph'southward culture, to which he attributes his poverty, and by rising to George's level, wherein he sees his salvation. Walter redeems himself and Blackness pride at the terminate past changing his heed and not accepting the buyout offering, stating that the family is proud of who they are and volition try to be adept neighbors. The play closes with the family leaving for their new habitation but uncertain future.

The character Mrs. Johnson and a few scenes were cut from the Broadway operation and in reproductions because of fourth dimension constraints. Mrs. Johnson is the Younger family's nosy and loud neighbor, at the beginning of the play. She cannot empathise how the family tin can consider moving to a white neighborhood and cattily jokes that she will probably read in the newspaper in a month that they have been killed in a bombing. Her lines are employed as comic relief, just Hansberry too uses this scene to mock those who are besides scared to stand upwards for their rights. In the introduction by Robert B. Nemiroff, he writes that the scene is included in print because it draws attending away from a seemingly happy ending to a more violent reality inspired past Hansberry's own experiences.

Broadway production and reception [edit]

With a cast in which all but one graphic symbol is Blackness, A Raisin in the Sun was considered a risky investment, and information technology took eighteen months for producer Philip Rose to enhance enough money to launch information technology. At that place was disagreement with how it should be played, with the focus on the mother or on the son. When the play hit New York, Poitier played information technology with emphasis on the son and found not only his calling but too an audition enthralled.^[5]

Afterwards touring to positive reviews, the play premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959. It transferred to the Belasco Theatre on October 19, 1959, and closed on June 25, 1960, later 530 total performances. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the bandage comprised:

Sidney Poitier – Walter Lee Younger
Ruby Dee – Ruth Younger
Ivan Dixon – Joseph Asagai
Lonne Elder III – Bobo
John Fiedler – Karl Lindner
Louis Gossett – George Murchison
Claudia McNeil – Lena Younger
Diana Sands – Beneatha Younger
Glynn Turman – Travis Younger
Ed Hall – moving man
Douglas Turner – moving man

Ossie Davis later took over equally Walter Lee Younger, and Frances Williams every bit Lena Younger.

Waiting for the pall to rising on opening night, Hansberry and producer Rose did not expect the play to be a success, for information technology had already received mixed reviews from a preview audition the night before. Though information technology won popular and critical acclaim, reviewers argued nearly whether the play was "universal" or particular to Black experience.^[6] Information technology was then produced on tour.

A Raisin in the Sun was the starting time play written by a Blackness woman to be produced on Broadway, as well as the first with a Blackness manager, Mr. Richards.^[vii] On opening night, later multiple curtain calls, the audition cried out for the author, whereupon Poitier jumped into the audience and pulled Hansberry onto the stage for her ovation.^[8]

Hansberry noted that her play introduced details of Black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards observed that information technology was the kickoff play to which large numbers of Blackness people were drawn.^[7] Frank Rich, writing in The New York Times in 1983, stated that A Raisin in the Sun "inverse American theater forever".^[9] In 2016, Claire Brennan wrote in The Guardian that "The power and craft of the writing brand A Raisin in the Sun as moving today as it was then."^[10]

In 1960 A Raisin In The Lord's day was nominated for four Tony Awards:

Best Play – written by Lorraine Hansberry; produced by Philip Rose, David J. Cogan
All-time Actor in Play – Sidney Poitier
Best Actress in a Play – Claudia McNeil
All-time Management of a Play – Lloyd Richards

Due west End production [edit]

Some 5 months later its Broadway opening, Hansberry'south play appeared in London'south West Cease, playing at the Adelphi Theatre from August iv, 1959. Every bit on Broadway, the director was Lloyd Richards, and the bandage was as follows:

Kim Hamilton – Ruth Younger
John Adan – Travis Younger
Earle Hyman – Walter Lee Younger
Olga James – Beneatha Younger
Juanita Moore – Lena Younger
Bari Johnson – Joseph Asagai
Scott Cunningham – George Murchison
Meredith Edwards – Karl Lindner
Lionel Ngakane – Bobo

The play was presented (as earlier) by Philip Rose and David J. Cogan, in association with the British impresario Jack Hylton.

1961 film [edit]

In 1961, a motion picture version of A Raisin in the Sunday was released featuring its original Broadway cast of Sidney Poitier, Scarlet Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, Ivan Dixon, Louis Gossett, Jr. and John Fiedler. Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and the picture was directed past Daniel Petrie. Information technology was released by Columbia Pictures and Ruddy Dee won the National Board of Review Honor for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and McNeil were nominated for Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Honour" at the Cannes Picture Festival.

Historical background [edit]

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sunday?

Langston Hughes (1951)^[11]

Experiences in this play repeat a lawsuit, Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940), to which the playwright Lorraine Hansberry's father was a party, when he fought to have his day in court despite the fact that a previous grade activeness almost racially motivated restrictive covenants, Shush v. Kleiman, 277 Ill. App. 519 (1934), had been similar to his situation. (This example was heard prior to the passage of the Fair Housing Act—Title 8 of the Civil Rights Act of 1968—which prohibited bigotry in housing). The Hansberry family won their correct to exist heard as a matter of due process of law in relation to the Fourteenth Subpoena to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court held that the Hansberry defendants were non bound past the Burke decision, because the class of homeowners in the Washington Park Subdivision had conflicting goals, and thus could not be considered to be the same class. The plaintiff in the kickoff action in 1934 was Olive Ida Burke, who brought the suit on behalf of a property owners' clan to enforce racial restrictions. Her husband, James Burke, later sold a house to Carl Hansberry (Lorraine's father), when he changed his mind well-nigh the validity of the covenant. Mr. Burke's decision may have been motivated by the irresolute demographics of the neighborhood, but it was also influenced by the Depression. The demand for houses was so low among white buyers that Mr. Hansberry may take been the only prospective purchaser available.^[12]

Other versions [edit]

1973 musical [edit]

A musical version of the play, Raisin, ran on Broadway from October eighteen, 1973, to December 7, 1975. The book of the musical, which stayed close to the play, was written by Hansberry's old hubby, Robert Nemiroff. Music and lyrics were by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan. The cast included Joe Morton (Walter Lee), Virginia Capers (Mama), Ernestine Jackson (Ruth), Debbie Allen (Beneatha) and Ralph Carter (Travis, the Youngers' young son). The testify won the Tony Accolade for Best musical.

1989 TV film [edit]

In 1989, the play was adapted into a Tv film for PBS's American Playhouse series, starring Danny Glover (Walter Lee) and Esther Rolle (Mama), Kim Yancey (Beneatha), Starletta DuPois (Ruth), John Fiedler (Karl Lindner), and Helen Martin (Mrs. Johnson). This production received three Emmy Honour nominations, but all were for technical categories. Bill Duke directed the production, while Chiz Schultz produced. This production was based on an off-Broadway revival produced past the Roundabout Theatre.

1996 BBC Radio play [edit]

On 3 March 1996, the BBC broadcast a production of the play by director/producer Claire Grove, with the following cast:^[13]

Claire Benedict – Mama
Ray Beat – Walter Lee
Pat Bowie – Ruth
Lachelle Carl – Beneatha
Garren Givens – Travis
Akim Mogaji – Joseph Asagai
Ray Fearon – George Murchison
John Sharion – Karl Lindner
Dean Hill – Bobo

Broadway revival, 2004 [edit]

A revival ran on Broadway at the Royale Theatre from April 26, 2004, to July 11, 2004^[xiv] with the post-obit cast:

Sean Combs – Walter Lee Younger
Audra McDonald – Ruth Younger
Phylicia Rashad – Lena Younger
Sanaa Lathan – Beneatha Younger
Nib Nunn – Bobo
David Aaron Baker – Karl Lindner
Lawrence Ballard – moving man
Teagle F. Bougere – Joseph Asagai
Frank Harts – George Murchison
Billy Eugene Jones – moving human
Alexander Mitchell – Travis Younger

The director was Kenny Leon, and David Binder and Vivek Tiwary were producers.

The play won two 2004 Tony Awards: All-time Extra in a Play (Phylicia Rashad) and Best Featured Actress in a Play (Audra McDonald), and was nominated for All-time Revival of a Play and Best Featured Extra in a Play (Sanaa Lathan).

2008 Tv motion picture [edit]

In 2008, Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, and Sanaa Lathan reprised their roles from the 2004 Broadway revival in a television film directed by Kenny Leon. The film debuted at the 2008 Sundance Picture show Festival and was broadcast past ABC on February 25, 2008. Rashad and McDonald received Emmy nominations for their portrayals of Lena and Ruth.^[15] According to Nielsen Media Enquiry, the program was watched past 12.seven 1000000 viewers and ranked No. 9 in the ratings for the calendar week ending March 2, 2008.^[16]

Royal Commutation, Manchester production, 2010 [edit]

In 2010, Michael Buffong directed a widely acclaimed production at the Royal Substitution Theatre in Manchester,^[17] described by Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph as "A bright play, brilliantly served".^[18] Michael Buffong, Ray Fearon and Jenny Jules all won MEN Awards. The bandage were:

Jenny Jules – Ruth Younger
Ray Fearon – Walter Lee Younger
Tracy Ifeachor – Beneatha Younger
Starletta DuPois (who played Ruth in the 1989 moving picture) – Lena Younger
Damola Adelaja – Joseph Asagai
Simon Combs – George Murchison
Tom Hodgkins – Karl Lindner
Ray Emmet Brown – Bobo/Moving Man

Broadway revival, 2014 [edit]

A second revival ran on Broadway from Apr 3, 2014, to June 15, 2014, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.^[19] ^[20] The play won three 2014 Tony Awards: All-time Revival of a Play, Best Performance past an Extra in a Featured Role in a Play (Sophie Okonedo) and Best Direction of a Play (Kenny Leon).^[21]

Denzel Washington – Walter Lee Younger
Sophie Okonedo – Ruth Younger
LaTanya Richardson Jackson – Lena Younger
Anika Noni Rose – Beneatha Younger
Stephen McKinley Henderson – Bobo
David Cromer – Karl Lindner
Keith Eric Chappelle – moving human
Sean Patrick Thomas – Joseph Asagai
Jason Dirden – George Murchison
Billy Eugene Jones – moving human being
Bryce Clyde Jenkins – Travis Younger

2016 BBC Radio Play [edit]

On 31 January 2016 the BBC broadcast a new production of the play by manager/producer Pauline Harris. This version restores the character of Mrs Johnson and a number of scenes that were cut from the Broadway production and subsequent moving picture, with the following bandage:^[22]

Danny Sapani – Walter Lee Younger
Dona Croll – Lena Younger
Nadine Marshall – Ruth Younger
Lenora Crichlow – Beneatha Younger
Segun Fawole – Travis Younger
Jude Akwudike – Bobo/Asagai
Cecilia Noble – Mrs. Johnson
Sean Baker – Karl Lindner
Richard Pepple – George Murchison

Arena Stage revival, 2017 [edit]

The play opened on April vi, 2017, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., directed by Tazewell Thompson, with the post-obit bandage:^[23]

Will Cobbs – Walter Lee Younger
Lizan Mitchell – Lena Younger
Dawn Ursula – Ruth Younger
Joy Jones – Beneatha Younger
Jeremiah Hasty – Travis Younger
Mack Leamon – Bobo/Asagai
Thomas Adrian Simpson – Karl Lindner
Keith L. Purple Smith – George Murchison

The Raisin Wheel [edit]

The 2010 Bruce Norris play Clybourne Park depicts the white family that sold the house to the Youngers. The outset human activity takes place but before the events of A Raisin in the Sunday, involving the selling of the house to the Blackness family; the second human action takes identify 50 years later.^[24]

The 2013 play past Kwame Kwei-Armah entitled Beneatha's Identify follows Beneatha after she leaves with Asagai to Nigeria and, instead of becoming a medico, becomes the Dean of Social Sciences at a respected (unnamed) California academy.^[25]

The two higher up plays, together with the original, were referred to by Kwei-Armah as "The Raisin Bike" and were produced together past Baltimore's Center Stage in the 2012–2013 season.^[26]

Meet also [edit]

Civil rights movement in popular culture

References [edit]

^ Internet Broadway Database. "A Raisin in the Dominicus | Ethel Barrymore Theatre (three/11/1959 – 10/17/1959)". IBDB. Archived from the original on 2013-12-25. Retrieved 2014-01-07 .
^ "A Dream Deferred (by Langston Hughes)". Cswnet.com. 1996-06-25. Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2014-01-07 .
^ "The twoscore all-time plays to read earlier you dice". The Contained. 2019-08-18. Archived from the original on 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2020-04-xvi .
^ "50 Best Plays of All Fourth dimension: Comedies, Tragedies and Dramas Ranked". Time Out New York . Retrieved 2020-04-16 .
^ Poitier, Sidney (2000). The Measure of a Man (first ed.). San Francisco: Harper. pp. 148–158. ISBN978-0-06-135790-nine.
^ Bernstein, Robin (1999). "Inventing a Fishbowl: White Supremacy and the Critical Reception of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Lord's day". Modern Drama. 42 (1): 16–27. doi:ten.3138/md.42.i.16. S2CID 193243431. Archived from the original on 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2011-04-14 .
^ ^a ^b Corley, Cheryl, "'A Raisin in the Dominicus', Present at the Creation" Archived 2017-07-04 at the Wayback Machine, National Public Radio, March xi, 2002.
^ McGreevy, Nora. "How Sidney Poitier Rewrote the Script for Blackness Actors in Hollywood". Smithsonian Magazine.
^ Rich, Frank (Oct 5, 1983). "Theater: 'Raisin in Sun,' Ceremony in Chicago". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-06-21. Retrieved 2018-03-22 .
^ Brennan, Claire (February 7, 2016). "A Raisin in the Sun review – however challenging its characters and audience". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2018-02-24. Retrieved 2018-02-25 . Review of a revival in Sheffield, England.
^ "Transcript: Langston Hughes and His Poetry – presentation by David Kresh (Journeys and Crossings, Library of Congress)". www.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2017-05-26. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
^ Kamp, Allen R. "The History Backside Hansberry v. Lee," xx U.S. Davis 50. Rev. 481 (1987).
^ "A Raisin in the Sun". Archived from the original on 2017-03-23. Retrieved 2017-03-23 .
^ Internet Broadway Database. "A Raisin in the Sun | Royale Theatre (four/26/2004 – 7/11/2004)". IBDB. Archived from the original on 2014-01-07. Retrieved 2014-01-07 .
^ "Chenoweth, Dench, Linney, McDonald, Rashad Nominated for Emmy Awards". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25.
^ Ginia Bellafante, "Raisin in the Sun: A Tale of Race and Family and a $10,000 Question" Archived 2017-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, February 25, 2008.
^ "A Raisin in the Dominicus". The Guardian. 2 February 2010. Archived from the original on 2016-09-26. Retrieved 2016-09-24 .
^ "A Raisin in the Sun review". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2016-10-09. Retrieved 2016-09-24 .
^ Playbill Vault. "A Raisin in the Sun". Playbill Vault. Archived from the original on 2014-04-05. Retrieved 2014-05-05 .
^ Gioia, Michael. "Tony-Winning Revival of 'A Raisin in the Dominicus' Plays Final Performance Tonight" playbill.com, June fifteen, 2014
^ Purcell, Carey. "'Gent's Guide', 'All The Way', 'Hedwig And the Angry Inch', 'Raisin in the Sun 'Win Top Prizes at 68th Annual Tony Awards" Archived 2014-06-12 at the Wayback Auto playbill.com, June 8, 2014
^ [1] Archived 2016-02-06 at the Wayback Auto, BBC, Jan 31, 2016.
^ "A Raisin in the Sun | Productions | Shows / Tickets | Arena Stage". Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-08 .
^ Brantley, Ben, "Good Defenses Make Good Neighbors," The New York Times, February 22, 2010.
^ Paul Harris, Legit Review: 'Beneatha's Place', [2] Archived 2017-12-05 at the Wayback Machine
^ David Zurawik, "Baltimore's Center Stage looks very good in PBS documentary on 'Raisin' bike", The Baltimore Sunday, October 25, 2013, [three] Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine

External links [edit]

A Raisin in the Lord's day at the Cyberspace Broadway Database
A Raisin in the Sun at Theatricalia.com
Heed to the play online
EDSITEment'southward lesson Raisin in the Sunday the Quest for the American Dream
Text to Text: ''A Raisin in the Sun'' and ''Bigotry in Housing Against Nonwhites Persists Quietly'' from The New York Times