LYRIC HAMMERSMITH – UNTIL 2nd NOVEMBER 2024
Reviewed by Jackie Thornton
5*****
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a
sore? (Langston Hughes)
A house in the suburbs, a new business, an education. These are the dreams of the Younger family, three generations crammed into a cockroach infested apartment in Chicago’s South Side. It’s 1950s USA and with $10,000 of life insurance money due following the death of their beloved father, an honest, hard working Black family dares to dream of a better life in Lorraine Hansberry’s multi-award winning play.
Not a word is wasted in director Tinuke Craig’s revival of this groundbreaking work that warmly follows matriarch Lena (Doreene Blackstock), her grown children Beneatha (Josephine-Fransilja Brookman) and Walter Lee (Soloman Israel), his wife Ruth (Cash Holland) and their ten-year-old son Travis. Hansberry’s clever digs at the misogyny, sexism, classism and racism of 1950s America agitate, sadly still ringing true today, as do the universal conversations on colonialism and independence, power and corruption, hope and despair.
Set design by Cecile Tremolieres confines the stellar cast to one sparsely furnished room which Lena, Ruth and Beneatha tirelessly scrub, dust and clean. Will they ever escape it? Holland as Ruth is incredible; even while in the background, the gamut of emotions she conveys constantly draws your gaze. That’s not to say that Israel’s pained speeches as hapless Walter or Brookman’s comical flamboyance as aspiring doctor Beneatha are not equally precise and enthralling. Kenneth Omole as Beneatha’s Nigerian suitor Joseph Asagai similarly dazzles with cheeky self-assurance while also delivering some stirring home truths.
A Raisin in the Sun is a timeless and captivating tale which generously offers up space to reflect on the human necessity for hope in a world inclined to kick us when we’re down. Life is struggle which makes our triumphs sweeter and existence all the richer. Don’t miss out on this stunning revival. I’d watch it again in a flash.