Everything about A Raisin In The Sun totally explained
A Raisin in the Sun is a play by
Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on
Broadway in 1959. The story is based upon a family's own experiences growing up in
Chicago's
Woodlawn neighborhood.
A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by a
black woman to be produced on
Broadway, as well as the first play with a black director (
Lloyd Richards) on Broadway.
Introduction
The title comes from the opening lines of "Harlem", a poem by
Langston Hughes ("What happens to a
dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like
a raisin in the sun?") Throughout the play, the idea of deferred dreams is a prominent theme, as each member of the Younger family attempts to find his or her place amidst a number of difficult situations.
With a cast in which all but one are African-Americans,
A Raisin in the Sun was considered to be a risky investment, and it took over a year for producer
Philip Rose to raise enough money to launch the play. After touring to positive reviews, it premiered on Broadway on
March 11,
1959, to enthusiastic reviews. The
New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and it ran for nearly two years and was produced on tour. Hansberry noted that it introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards observed that it was the first play to which large numbers of blacks were drawn. The
New York Times stated that
A Raisin in the Sun "changed American theater forever."
In 1960
A Raisin In The Sun was nominated for four
Tony Awards:
Best Play - Written by
Lorraine Hansberry; produced by Philip Rose,
David J. Cogan
Best Actor in Play -
Sidney Poitier
Best Actress in a Play -
Claudia McNeil
Best Direction of a Play -
Lloyd Richards
Original Broadway Cast
Written by
Lorraine Hansberry; Directed by
Lloyd Richards
Designed by
Ralph Alswang; Lighted by
Ralph Alswang; Costumes by
Virginia Volland; Sound Design by
Masque Sound Engineering Company
General Manager:
Walter Fried
Production Stage Manager:
Leonard Auerbach; Stage Manager:
Mervyn Williams
Plot
The play is about the Younger Family, as they dream of leaving behind the run-down ugly, two room looking apartment where they've lived since Ruth and Walter were married. The father, Walter, had big dreams of making a fortune by investing in a liquor store but foolishly gives his money to a con-artist. His sister, Beneatha, a college student, tries to find her identity and embraces the Back-to-Africa philosophy of a Nigerian friend, Joseph Asagai. The Grandma, mother of Beneatha and Walter, is Lena. She shares Ruth's dreams of buying a house, and does so with money from her dead husband's insurance policy, but the house is in an all white neighborhood. Their racist future neighbors send one of their members, a man named Karl Lindner to try to buy them out and prevent the neighborhood's integration. Walter Lee, having been swindled, initially contemplates taking the money, but ultimately refuses to be intimidated or bought out.
Litigation
The experiences in this play echo a lawsuit
Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32 (1940), to which the Hansberry family was a party when they fought to have their day in court because a previous action about racially motivated restrictive covenants (
Burke v. Kleiman, 277 Ill. App. 519 (1934) was similar to the case at hand. They won their right to be heard as a matter of due process of law in relation to the Fourteenth Amendment. The Hansberry case wasn't bound by the Burke decision because the class of defendants in the respective cases had conflicting goals.
Interestingly, the plaintiff in the first action was Olive Ida Burke, who brought the suit on behalf of the property owner's association to enforce the racial restriction in 1934. Her husband, James Burke, was the person who sold the property to Carl Hansberry (Lorraine's father) when he changed his mind about the validity of the covenant. Mr. Burke's decision may have been motivated by the changing 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 have been the only prospective purchaser available.
Lorraine reflects upon the litigation in her book
To Be Young, Gifted, and Black:
"25 years ago, [myfather] spent a small personal fortune, his considerable talents, and many years of his life fighting, in association with NAACP attorneys, Chicago’s ‘restrictive covenants’ in one of this nation's ugliest ghettos. That fight also required our family to occupy disputed property in a hellishly hostile ‘white neighborhood’ in which literally howling mobs surrounded our house… My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school. And I also remember my desperate and courageous mother, patrolling our household all night with a loaded German [L]uger [pistol], doggedly guarding her four children, while my father fought the respectable part of the battle in the Washington court."
Other versions
1961 film
In 1961, a film version of
A Raisin in the Sun was released featuring its original Broadway cast of
Sidney Poitier,
Ruby Dee,
Claudia McNeil,
Diana Sands,
Ivan Dixon,
Louis Gossett, Jr. and
John Fiedler. Hansberry wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by
Daniel Petrie. It was released by
Columbia Pictures and Ruby Dee won the
National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. Both Poitier and MacNeil were nominated for
Golden Globe Awards, and Petrie received a special "Gary Cooper Award" at the
Cannes Film Festival. However, the film received no
Academy Award nominations.
It wasn't rated by the
MPAA, 128 minutes long, and was filmed in
black and white.
Musical
In 1973, the play was turned into a musical,
Raisin. Hansberry's former husband, Robert Nemiroff, wrote the book of the musical. It won the 1974
Tony Award for Best Musical.
TV Films
1989 Adaptation
In
1989 it was adapted into a
made for TV movie starring
Danny Glover and
Esther Rolle. This production received three
Emmy Award nominations, but all were for technical categories.
Bill Duke directed the production, while Chee Lee produced the production, which also featured
Starletta DuPois and
John Fiedler, who had starred in the original Broadway production and the 1961 film version. This production was based on an off-Broadway revival produced by the
Roundabout Theatre.
The cast, along with their character names, for the 1989 production are as follows: Danny Glover as "Walter Lee," Starletta DuPois as "Ruth," Esther Rolle as "Mama," and Kim Yancey as "Beneatha."
2008 Adaptation
Paula Boudreau,
Alexandra Cheron,
Elle Downs,
Justin Martin, and
John Stamos. This version of the play was directed by
Kenny Leon.
Further Information
Get more info on 'A Raisin In The Sun'.
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