The Pen – Still Mightier Than The Sword 60 Years On

Written in the 50’s but, undoubtedly, ‘a play for all seasons’, Lorraine Hansberry’s breakthrough drama, A Raisin in the Sun, is a thought-provoking piece of theatre that is as pertinent in 2024 as it ever was in 1959, when it first challenged the norms of a still racially segregated Chicago society.

It was the first play by a black woman to hit Broadway and, seven decades on, the ability of any drama to endure beyond its original conception whilst still holding a modern audience, must, surely, be a comment on the quality of its writing and the measure of its themes?

Which is why director Tinuke Craig’s three-hour marathon will hold you from start to finish in this fresh production from Leeds Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, Headlong and Nottingham Playhouse.

In a rented apartment on Chicago’s South Side, the Younger family is full of hope, dreams, grief and big plans as they wait for the arrival of a $10,000 life insurance payout. The only problem is everyone has a different idea on how it should be spent.

The naïve but desperately enthusiastic Walter Lee, played so convincingly by Solomon Israel, wants to invest the cash in a liquor store: his wife Ruth (Cash Holland) is less convinced.

For sister Beneatha (Josephine-Fransilja Brookman) it is the chance to study medicine but, for mum, Lena (Doreene Blackstock), it is the downpayment on a house in a better area but a largely white neighbourhood.

On the one hand it is a play about aspiration and dreams, however, the wider vista is a comment on the frustrations and limitations of prejudice, being ‘kept in one’s place’ by circumstance and a white society fighting the ‘threat’ of change. It is about the desire of black America to be free from more than the chains of its slave past.

But it is that desperation that leads Walter into making a bad financial decision that not only loses the lion’s share of the money, but highlights his immaturity, frustrations and sense of hopelessness.

However, from this very loss Walter finds himself and makes the decision that will break some of those ‘chains’: ‘we will not be intimidated. We will upgrade our lives and move to a better ‘white’ neighbourhood, even if it does mean more prejudice.’

Crammed with themes – hope, struggle, loss, aspiration - Hansberry’s work must have been ahead of its time, and, whilst I cannot speak for 1959, I can say that Tinuke Craig’s production was excellent with some brilliant performances.

Aundrea Fudge as voice and dialect coach certainly brought the best out of the cast, allowing Craig to work on the staging and characterisations.

Josephine-Fransilja Brookman as Beneatha was the almost petulant teen college girl, funny but, at times, a family anchor.

Doreene Blackstock’s Lena, was the older mother who’d seen it all: tough and unphased, even when son Walter loses the cash.

This is not an evening of light relief however, with all the nonsense that prevails on social media and the news, plays like this are designed to stop you in your tracks, make you think and remind you that everything you see on Facebook is not necessarily true!

It WILL make you think and, for that reason alone, you should go. It’ll challenge those unconscious biases that none of us have!

A Raisin in the Sun
Leeds Playhouse’s Courtyard Theatre
Until Saturday September 28th
Book on: 0113 213 7700 or online at www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk