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Peer Reviews A Raisin
in the Sun Reviewed by Sherry Deatrick Entire contents are copyright © 2008 Sherry Deatrick. All rights reserved.
"Walter Lee — it's
time for you to get up!" Why has it taken fifty years from the 1959 Broadway premiere of A Raisin in the Sun for an African American to "get up" and ascend to the highest office in the land? I'm proud that the majority of voters no longer conspire to hold a man back because of his race, but saddened that it's taken so long to get there. Modern audiences may have trouble relating to the Younger family's dreams of living a better life, because racism is not nearly as pervasive as it once was. But A Raisin in the Sun serves as a reminder of how far we've come, and how much farther we have to go. The opening night crowd (mostly Caucasian) found the show "moving" and "inspirational," based on comments I heard in the hall. However, this troubles me in that it can so easily assuage the Caucasian conscience, allowing us to pat ourselves on the back and somberly intone, "We're not like that anymore." No! We must not fall into that trap. We have a long way to go before we are truly colorblind. Was Actors Theatre prescient when scheduling this play, or do they just subconsciously have their fingers on the cultural pulse? The timing of this performance can't be just a fluke. Also, the play is set in Chicago's south side, where Obama once worked as a "community organizer." Coincidence? I think not! Watching this performance, I could see how strongly August Wilson was influenced by this play. Like many of Wilson's dramas, it features a strong matriarch who battles with a male for supremacy. Here, Lena Younger heads the family, consisting of her son, Walter Lee, and her daughter, Beneatha. Along with Walter's wife, Ruth, and their son, Travis, they share a cramped, roach-infested two-bedroom apartment with a communal bathroom. Walter is a chauffeur who wants to open a liquor store with two friends. Ruth and Lena clean other people's kitchens. Beneatha, a student, dreams of becoming a doctor. Little Travis wants to be a bus driver. Living in such close quarters, naturally the family spends a lot of time sniping at each other. (A concordance reveals the word "you" is used over 700 times in this play.) Accusations fly like locusts as each blames the other for the inability to achieve their dreams. Lena holds the key — a $10,000 life insurance benefit check she's expecting following her husband's death. Eventually, the family realizes they must unite to take a stand against the ugliness that would seek to keep "separate and not equal" the status quo. Zan Sawyer-Daily has gathered an impressive cast for this production. Marlene Warfield was outstanding as Lena, despite losing her way more than a few times. Warfield has appeared in numerous television, film, and stage shows, including prostitute Clara Kerr in The Great White Hope, political revolutionary Laureen Hobbes in Network, and Maude's final maid, Victoria Butterfield. Warfield's Lena stalks her family like a tiger, but she's motivated by love. Terrence Riggins fully explores Walter's complexity as he moves from downtrodden chauffeur, imagining himself a successful businessman, angry scam victim, and a supreme disappointment to his mother. No matter where his character is, Riggins commands attention in his unforgettable performance, especially during Walter's unhappy realization that life is a constant battle between the haves and the have-nots: "I laid in there on my back today, and I saw life just like it is. He who gets and he who don't get. It's all divided up between the takers and the tooken. And some of us are always being tooken. People like Willie never get tooken. You know why the rest of us do? Because we're mixed up. Always looking for the right and wrong of things. We worry and cry and stay up nights......trying to figure out what's right, what's wrong......while the takers are out there, just operating. Taking and taking." Louisville native Joy DeMichelle Moore imbues Ruth with the strength needed to stand up to her angry husband and yet remain loyal to him as he finally "gets up" at the end of the play. Nicole Gant is engaging and energetic (at times a bit too energetic) as Beneatha, the budding young doctor torn between two suitors — one an assimilated son of a successful entrepreneur, the other a Nigerian traditionalist. (Interesting bit of trivia: Justice Pratt, who plays wealthy suitor George Murchison, is Leslie Uggams's son.) Pierre LaFran Priest, Jr., who plays the young Travis, is a student at the Brown School. He's like a young Theodore in Leave it to Beaver, successfully summoning the youthful innocence of a bygone era. Keep your eye on this young actor. Also of note is Willis Burks II, in the role of Bobo, another "tooken" victim. Mick Weber is effective as Karl Lindner, the lily-white emissary from the Youngers' new neighborhood, keeping him on that fine edge between menacing and cowering. The period costumes are a nice touch. The floral print a-line dresses and tailored suits for the women are delightful. The nattily checked zippered suit jacket worn by Walter is almost too hip for a chauffeur, but then Walter liked to hang at the Green Hat tavern listening to modern jazz. The only misstep in costuming is Mr. Asagai's — it looks more like a rumpled striped barber's cloak than a dashiki shirt. In fact, Asagai's character seems out of place in this play and never fully explored; it's as if he were thrown in for mere novelty's sake.
A Raisin in the Sun Featuring Terrence Riggins, Joy DeMichelle Moore,
Marlene Warfield, Nicole Gant, Pierre LaFran Priest,
Jr., Justice Pratt, Gilbert Owuor, and Willis Burks
II Posted Nov. 15, 2008
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