The Feature Presentation

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The story based on Hansberry'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. The title comes from the opening lines of "Harlem", a poem by Langston Hughes (1902-1967): "What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun?" A play with an all-black cast was considered to be a risky investment, and it took a year for first-time producer Philip Rose to gather the money to launch the play. After touring to positive reviews, it premiered on Broadway on 11 March 1959 to enthusiastic critical approval. The New York Drama Critics Circle named it the best play of 1959, and it ran for nearly two years. Hansberry noted that it introduced details of black life to the overwhelmingly white Broadway audiences, while director Richards noted that it was the first play to which large numbers of blacks were drawn.
The play concerns the working-class Younger family, who dream of leaving behind the dilapidated tenement apartment where they have lived for decades. The son Walter, a chauffeur, dreams of making a fortune by investing in a liquor store but foolishly gives his money to a con artist. His sister Beneatha, a somewhat flighty college student, tries to find her identity and embraces the "back to Africa" philosophy of a Nigerian friend. Their mother, the matriarch, dreams of buying a home, and does so with her late husband's insurance money, but the house is in an all-white neighborhood. Their racist future neighbors hire a man named Karl Lindner as a "Welcoming Committee" to try to buy them out to prevent the neighborhood's integration. However, Walter takes a stand and refuses to be intimidated or bought out; in this, he stops deferring his family's dreams and helps them advance.
The central idea of the play is concerned with combating the myth of black contentment. The stress of poverty is vividly portrayed through the tight quarters as five people are squeezed together onstage into a one room apartment.
The cast
- Ruth Younger: Ruth is Walter Lee's wife, a deeply emotional and old fashioned woman. Despite her true love for family and her husband, she has difficulty dealing with Walter's mistreatment of her. Ruth is pregnant and goes to a female gynecologist to put a down payment on having her unborn child aborted. Ruth is the family member most excited to move into a new home because she wants her son Travis to have a better life.
- Travis Younger: Travis is Ruth and Walter Lee's only child and sleeps on the couch in the living room. He loves his grandmama deeply and buys her a large gardening hat as a moving gift. Although he often plays one parent against the other unknowingly, he has a close relationship with both Ruth and Walter.
- Walter Lee Younger: Walter Lee is Lena's oldest child and only son. He is married to Ruth and works as a chauffeur for wealthy white people. He constantly feels as though the entire world is against him, especially the women in his life: his mother and his wife. He seems to care only for money and wants the insurance money to start a liquor store with Bobo and Willy Harris. Although Walter is obsessed with money and seems to ignore his family, he matures at the conclusion of the play, as he tells Lindner that his family cannot be bought.
- Beneatha Younger: Beneatha (also known as Bennie) is Lena's youngest child and only daughter, who plans to become a doctor. She has two gentleman callers in her life: George Murchison, the wealthy Negro whom she dislikes intensely, and Joseph Asagai, the Nigerian intellectual who sweeps her off her feet. She constantly presents herself as a modern, black woman, with new freedoms and rights, and plans to find her roots both in America and in Africa
- Lena Younger (Mama): Lena (Mama) is the matriarch of the Younger family, controlling everyone's emotions and actions, and calling the shots on the future.
- Joseph Asagai: Asagai is Beneatha's African boyfriend. He is from Nigeria and wants to take Bennie back with him to practice medicine in Africa. He is very intelligent and stays close to his roots, causing Bennie to fall for him.
- Karl Lindner: Mr. Lindner is the white representative from the Clybourne Welcoming Committee. He comes to the Younger household feigning respect, and attempts to appear accepting, while secretly wanting the Negro family out of his community. He offers the Younger family money in exchange for their absence from his neighborhood.