As a long-time theater critic, it’s embarrassing for me to admit that Court Theatre’s new take on A Raisin in the Sun is the first time I’ve seen a live production of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 masterpiece. I somehow missed Chicago productions by Invictus Theatre in 2020 and TimeLine Theatre in 2013, plus starry revivals on Broadway in 2004 and 2014.
I did read A Raisin in the Sun as part of the Chicago Public Library’s One Book, One Chicago initiative back in 2003, and I’ve also seen scenes from film and TV adaptations through the years. But that’s not enough, given the historical significance of A Raisin in the Sun as the first Broadway play written by an African-American woman (who has also been claimed as part of the LGBTQ+ community).
Yet I’m not the only one playing catchup to Hansberry’s towering domestic drama set in the 1950s on Chicago’s South Side. Though Court Theatre did stage the 1973 Broadway musical adaption Raisin in 2006, this is the first time that this South Side institution has produced A Raisin in the Sun. The play’s Windy City homecoming couldn’t be more prescient as Republicans are escalating attacks on U.S. civil rights and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Court Theatre senior artistic producer Gabrielle Randle-Bent as director has opted not to render A Raisin in the Sun as a photo-realistic period piece. Instead, Randle-Bent has steered her design team to take a more reflective and impressionistic visual approach.
Andrew Boyce’s skeletal set design features photographic panels of South Side housing stock and infrastructure that hover above the mostly missing walls of the apartment home of the Younger family. This exposes the lack of privacy the characters live with, especially when it comes to the shared telephone and toilet down the hall (Randle-Bent’s extended silent opening to the play emphasizes the difficult conditions of the Youngers timing their morning bathroom visits).
The main plot hinges on how the matriarch Lena (Shanésia Davis) plans to use a $10,000 life insurance payout following her husband’s death. Lena wants to buy a house, and to help pay for medical school for her grown daughter, Beneatha (Martasia Jones). But Lena’s son, Walter Lee (Brian Keys), wants the money to invest in a liquor store so he can quit his job as a chauffeur and become his own boss.
This main plot focuses largely on racial bias in housing and employment, especially with the arrival of Karl Lindner (Vincent Teninty) of the “Clybourne Park Improvement Association” when Lena has her eye on a house in a non-redlined neighborhood. But Hansberry also brings up loads of other issues that communities still grapple with today.
With Beneatha’s two suitors, her character is faced with capitalist ambitions via the wealthy George Mucrhison (Charles Andrew Gardner) or helping Africans to shake off colonialism with the Nigerian student Joseph Asagai (Eliott Johnson). Meanwhile, Walter Lee’s overworked wife, Ruth (Kierra Bunch), despairs at her options once she discovers she is pregnant.
Raquel Adorno and associate designer Jeanette Rodriguez largely keep the costumes of the period, though 1960s fashions and hair burst forth with the more socially progressive Beneatha. Other production elements by lighting designer Maximo Grano De Oro and sound designer Willow James also give a great sense of time and place.
Given the play’s many serious subject matters and the cramped living conditions of the Younger family, it’s understandable that Randle-Bent has steered the acting ensemble to largely approach their roles with a dutiful weightiness. Julian Parker is particularly great in his brief scene as Bobo, the bearer of very bad news.
By contrast, the exuberance of J. Nicole Brooks’ laugh-generating cameo as the nosy neighbor Mrs. Johnson almost feels like her character had wandered in from a Tyler Perry film. Now, I am not at all asking for that level of broadness from the rest of the cast. But perhaps the occasional glimmer of familial joy could shine a bit brighter now and then amid so much seriousness.
I also guess that some might see anachronisms with the copious arm tattoos on Brian Keys that have not been covered up. But that visual cue could also be a sign that director Randle-Bent wants audiences not to just write off A Raisin in the Sun as period museum piece. Instead, it’s amazing to see how much Hansberry had the foresight to bring up issues in her monumental play that are still very much in direct dialogue African-American communities of today. The Court Theatre’s strong take on A Raisin in the Sun is a powerful and timely reminder of this.
A Raisin in the Sun has been extended to Sunday, March 23, at the Court Theatre at 5535 S. Ellis Ave. Regular schedule: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday, with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $58-$100 ($60-$100 from March 5 to 9). Call 773-753-4472 or visit CourtTheatre.org for more information.