Review: Fresno State’s emotionally satisfying ‘Raisin in the Sun’ explores dreams deferred
By Heather Parish
Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” is one of the landmark plays in the modern American canon, including winning the New York Drama Critics Circle’s award for best play and the Tony Award for best play in 1959, being the first play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, the first play with a with a Black director on Broadway (Lloyd Richards), and the first commercially successful Broadway play with a predominantly Black cast. It routinely lands on the “Best of” lists for plays of the 20th Century.
Pictured above, left to right: Levetta Wheeler, Ananda Desirea and Teroy Roberts in the Fresno State production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” Photo: University Theatre
And, of course, it has been taught in American sophomore English classes for the past 40 or so years.
If a stuffy classroom is your only experience with “Raisin,” I recommend you take the opportunity to see it performed in Fresno State University Theatre’s emotionally satisfying production, directed by Thomas-Whit Ellis. It is a model of the well-made play, with all of the essential pieces pointing to the overriding theme — the survival of the Black family in America.
Family Drama
Walter Lee Younger (Teroy Roberts) thinks big despite the fact that he has spent most of his life as a chauffeur. He is now 35 years old and lives in a one-bedroom apartment on Chicago’s poor South Side with his wife, mother, and sister. His 10-year-old son sleeps on the couch in the living room. They don’t even have their own bathroom, but have to share with the neighbors. He needs a big win, and he has a plan to invest in a liquor store with two neighborhood cronies. Since Walter Lee’s father died not long ago, he is eagerly awaiting his mother’s $10,000 life insurance payout. But the rest of the family has competing dreams of their own: a house, an education, a bit of space to think.
As Walter Lee, Roberts manages to make a difficult character mostly likeable from the jump. Walter tends to run roughshod over the women in his life and has an unjustified sense of ownership over his mother’s property, but can turn on the charm right when he’s about to lose them. Walter may not be easy to take, but the pressure he endures is sympathetic, stuck as he is between the rock of poverty and the hard place of ambition. Roberts’ performance places Walter’s frustrations solidly in his chest and gut, taking life’s blows to the body, but still getting up.
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LeVetta Wheeler is excellent as Lena, the family matriarch. Her character is equal parts strong-willed and soft touch, and she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but loves them anyway. As Lena decides how to invest her windfall, Wheeler casts a sharp eye over the lives of the Younger children. Lena’s been through a lot of hurt in her life, but Wheeler delivers her motherly concerns with a silver strand of hope running through them.
Marazay Ashford is a quick and sharp Benetha, Walter’s younger sister. “Benny” is not without ambition herself and has a thirst for knowledge and justice. While she may think she has little in common with her less intellectual brother, she is also managing a set of confining choices: the ease of marrying for money or the struggle of pursuing the road less traveled. Ashford delivers the vivacity of a young idealist on the cusp of maturity, which contrasts nicely with Roberts’ deep sense of grievance.
Where Lena Younger is the head of the family, Walter Lee’s wife, Ruth (Ananda Desirea), is its beating heart. While her husband is a constantly misfiring combustion engine, Ruth’s frustrations have stretched her thin, like a worn-out violin string about to snap. Desirea maintains this tension every moment of her time on stage, providing the pulsing undercurrent of almost every scene. If at first Desirea’s presence seems like the steady center of the family dynamic, she lets us know in small gestures and fleeting expressions, that she’s more likely the eye of the storm. All-in-all, it’s an exceptional performance.
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The way these four performers play in relation to one another illuminates one of my questions about “Raisin.” Is the play intended to be about one man’s “dream deferred?” Or is it also about how that one man also wears down and betrays the dreams of the women around him? The performances of this cast did justice to the question.
The sharp ensemble includes Ellis Cayden Sheppard as Travis Younger (Ruth and Walter’s son), Kenny Umeh as Joseph Asagai (the Nigerian man in love with Benny), Jayvaughn Sterns, Jr. as (a wealthy suitor), and Matthew Scheiner as Karl Lindner (the Clybourne Park weasel emissary, offering a deal with the devil). Overall, the cast is focused, buoyant, and making the most of every opportunity afforded to them by Hansberry’s impeccable play.
Opportunities and Magic
Those opportunities also include humor, and I daresay, even joy alongside the heavier emotions. “Raisin” is definitely a realistic domestic drama showing the day-to-day struggle and life-changing setbacks of a family on the brink. But Hansberry’s brilliance is in the grace notes she weaves in and out of the action, without diminishing her characters’ experiences. Ellis’ direction leaves room for this to rise to the surface and the cast relishes those moments alongside the drama.
Staged simply and straightforwardly in the Woods’ Theatre’s ¾ thrust stage, the set and lighting is open enough to seem as though the Younger apartment is floating in time and space. (Jeff Hunter is listed as scenic coordinator, Natasha Mach as lighting designer.) The inclusion of an African dance in the dream sequence (choreographed by Miss “K”atrina Steward) and a “Fiddler”-esque trumpeter (Nathan Moore) appearing onstage during scene shifts adds a sense of magical realism to the play that I appreciated. Costumes by Justice are a standout element, helping to ground the characters in reality.
As the title reference to Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” tells us, “A Raisin in the Sun” is about a a whole family of dreams and how easily they flatten under the crushing weight of racism, misogyny, generational poverty, and the diminishment of human potential. But, as this production illuminates, it is also about familial understanding, daunting change, and the need to love one another through life’s toughest moments.
“A Raisin in the Sun” continues at Fresno State’s University Theater through October 11.
Steph
One of the best written reviews I’ve ever read. Brilliant use of wordplay and aptly magical adjectives.
A true joy to read.