Pictured is the cast of “A Raisin in the Sun” during the curtain call at the Woodford Theatre’s performance on Saturday, Feb. 8. From left: Cathy Rawlings, Matthew Burney, Christian Sloan, Jessica Hudson, Manny Thurman, BerNadette West-Fugate, Erica Tilford, Teddy Mo, Marcus Rolands, and Evertt Parker. (Photo by Scott White)
“A Raisin in the Sun,” a classic of the American theater written by Lorraine Hansberry, and the first play produced on Broadway by a Black woman playwright premiering in 1959, is being performed through Feb. 16 at the Woodford Theatre at Falling Springs.
This is a don’t miss opportunity for Woodford County audiences to see this dramatic masterpiece in a well-acted and thoughtfully directed production, and, though written in the late 1950s, its themes remain contemporary.
The play, set in 1950s Chicago, deals with the Younger family’s life in a segregated northern city during the final phase of the Great Migration, which saw millions of Blacks migrate North from the South. The action of the play centers around the proceeds of an insurance policy that can be transformative in different ways to each family member, but also comes with disagreements about how to spend it.
Although married for a short time, Hansberry lived a closeted life as a lesbian as homosexuality was a crime in New York City during her lifetime. She died tragically young in 1965 at the age of 34 of pancreatic cancer during the production of her second Broadway drama, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.”
Her last play, “Les Blancs,” also premiered on Broadway in 1970, well after her death. Hansberry also was the inspiration for jazz singer Nina Simone’s classic song, “Young, Gifted and Black.”