A Raisin in the Sun at People’s Light

The play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” got its title from a line in a short Langston Hughes 1951 poem. It begins “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” Six years later, at the age of 27, Lorraine Hansberry wrote the now classic play. It opened on Broadway two years later. It has opened again with a very strong cast in a People’s Light’s production. Incredibly sensitive and powerful, it takes place in the 2-bedroom apartment of a Black family in their South Side Chicago apartment in the 1950’s.

            In this space live the grandmother Lena, Waiter (her son), Ruth (Walter’s wife), Travis (her 10-year-old grandson), and Beneatha (her grown daughter). They eke out a living with the low-paying jobs they can get, each with a dream, but little hope of fulfilling that dream. They don’t have the money to get out of where they are until… until now. Lena’s husband has recently died and there is a ten-thousand-dollar life insurance check that will soon arrive.

            Walter would like money to open a liquor store. Benethea plans to go to medical school which she hopes Lena will pay for. And Lena herself would like to buy a home of their own that will have more space and three bedrooms. They have dreams which money CAN buy.

            And then there are other issues like Walter’s drinking. There is Ruth, trying to balance the struggles of everyone’s needs while worrying about finances. There is Lena’s devout religious belief and her daughter Beneatha’s dismissal of religion. She is being courted by George, a man who has money and has assimilated into white society, who she finds shallow and indicates to her family that she has no use for him. The other man, who has recently entered her life, is Joseph, a student from Nigeria, who reminds her of her African heritage. What is a Black person in mid-century America?

There is so much more to the stories that evolve, but they are just a part of the play. What I enjoyed the most was the force behind each character that Hansberry has created, and that Director Steve H. Broadnax III has brought to the stage. We don’t want to miss a word in the rapid movement of the story. We don’t want to miss an expression on these faces. Can any of them come close to getting what they desire? How much will they sell themselves to achieve their goals in the face of the flagrant racism of the day?

            My only problem with the production was the set. Instead of a small, crowded apartment, the stage at People’s Light was large and bright and uncluttered. But that was minor.

            Five years after the play got to Bradway, the first by a Black woman, the theater world lost its brilliant playwright, Lorraine Hansberry to pancreatic cancer. But her work lives on in this modern classic. People’s Light does her honor with this outstanding production.

“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org   Thru March 30, 2025