Raisin in the Sun

Raisin in the Sun description

The scene: a rental apartment on Chicago’s South Side. The cast: the Younger family, whose hopes and dreams are tinged by grief when they get a payout from their dad’s life insurance policy. Will their lives change and if so, how? This is their story.

Written by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Tinuke Craig (Jitney, The Color Purple) and co-produced by the Lyric Hammersmith, Headlong, Leeds Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse, this is a family drama to reckon with.

A powerful plot that still matters in the modern world

Walter’s mum wants to put down roots in a home of her own somewhere nice, fed up with renting. Her daughter Beneatha wants to be a doctor. But Walter wants to spend his dad’s life insurance money on himself, keen to start an off-license business. He thinks his values and family are worth the sacrifice but like everyone in the family he struggles to escape the segregated society that confines black people. Will any of them manage to create a meaningful life in a country that wants them to stay downtrodden?

Groundbreaking stuff

Described as groundbreaking, pioneering and challenging, Lorraine Hansberry’s classic three part play broke barriers as the first play by a black woman to reach Broadway. It is just as relevant today as it was in 1959, in a world than remains divided by inequality more than sixty years later.

Having an almost-all-black cast made funding the play’s original launch a challenge. Philip Rose managed to find the money after an 18 month search, Sidney Poitier took the starring role in New York, and audiences and critics alike went wild.

A 1960 movie followed, then a 1973 musical, 1989 TV film, 1996 BBC radio play, Broadway revivals in 2004 and 2014, a 2008 movie, and an off Broadway revival in 2022. Now it’s in theatreland, ready to thrill London audiences all over again.

Playing at Lyric Hammersmith (venue info)