By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—I’m old enough to remember segregation and racial prejudice before it was swept under the carpet only to rear its ugly head again in 2008. Then, there was no beating around the bushes when it came to who drank from what faucet or went to what part of the bus or entered what door to use what bathroom facilities. I was in Alabama in 1959 and growing up in Massachusetts, there was one boy of color in my high school class. Racism? It’s subtler now than it was then and then is where our story begins.
In 1950 the Younger family was not a part of the Civil Rights movement nor did they know the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would be passed. Brown vs. The Board of Education was in its infancy and school de segregation was more a matter of geography rather than history. This family just knew that with hard work and following the rules, they would be able to see their dreams and some day, move into their own place.
Dream, images, ideas, thoughts, concepts. Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin In the Sun is as much about dreams as it is about making those dreams become a reality. And in 1959 ten thousand dollars might have seemed a million to some and a dream come true to others. Have you ever played the game about how you could best use, you fill in the dollar amount, if you only had it? Pay bills? Travel? Get a new wardrobe? Pay for schooling? Buy a house? Redo your garden? For as many as participate in this little exercise, there are as many uses for the money. For the three generations of Youngers cramped into their two bedroom flat, that was their dilemma.
The family include matriarch Lena Younger (Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson), Walter Lee Younger (Mark Christopher Lawrence), Beneatha Younger (Kaja Dunn), Ruth Younger (Yolanda Franklin) and Travis Younger (LaTahj Myers). They share an older but spotless (Patrick Kelly) and very crowded apartment together in Southside Chicago.
From the first, looking in on them, the day starts out as usual but something is going on. They are waiting anxiously for the mail. This is the day Mama should be getting the ten thousand dollar check due her from late husband’s (the senior Walter Younger) insurance policy. Everyone with the exception of ten-year-old Travis has an idea of how to use that money.
Walter can feel the check in his hands he wants it so badly. If he had that $10,000.00 he would invest it in a liquor store with two of his friends. Owning his own business would bring him the freedom he needed to feel like The Man. Right now Walter is a chauffer for a white man. He hates his job, he blames his wife and mother for all that’s wrong in his life, for holding him back and even for being in charge of the purse strings.
To show them who are in charge, he goes to the neighbored watering hole for a drink or two and that worries both of the women but for different reasons. Ruth and Mama do domestic housework to supplement Walter’s salary and between the two Walter is emasculated, left out of any decision-making, powerless.
His sister Beneatha is at medical school studying to be a doctor and that money would help pay her tuition. Both Ruth and Mama want the money to go as a down payment for a home for the family. A bigger house would surely help out ten /eleven year old grandson Travis who now sleeps in the living room on the living room couch. He could have his own room. Also pregnant Ruth needs some room for the new baby and would allow her and Walter Lee more privacy.
Walter is relentless in making his case to the whole family. Mark Christopher Lawrence, a larger than life presence to begin with, is simply outstanding as the man/child who can’t seem to get a leg up in this world. Watching him emerge from a stubborn, selfish and tunnel vision man to a prideful and proud man of the hour is stunning. He lives in his mother’s house with his entire family. His sister is in med school, takes guitar lessons and is moving on with her life, money be damned, but he has to ask for bus fare from his wife. The times they are a’ changing though.
After much soul searching when Lena hears all the arguments pro and con with regards to Walter’s dreams, she makes a decision that will profoundly affect the entire family and turn it on its proverbial head. Here as throughout the entire production M’Lafi Thompson’s Lena is the anchor and voice of the Younger family as Hansberry’s words cut across all ethnic and religious landscapes and land squarely on the basic needs of their humanity; the freedom to dream their dreams and the freedom to fly with them. The fact that what they are dreaming might tear them apart matters not. If one cannot dream ones dream, ‘…maybe it dries up like a raisin in the sun’.
Realizing that Walter must accomplish his dreams to survive, Lena uses some of the money to put a deposit down on a new house (in an all white housing development) and then gives Walter the rest of the money to manage by setting some aside for Beneatha’s schooling, and the rest for his own use.
And so the dialogue, the arguments, the conflicting ideas and dreams that rage back and fourth between mother and son, husband and wife, sister and brother that might tear this family apart, which at times looks like it will, finally reaches a climax where reason, humility and family commitment trump all.
The entire cast in all its majesty brings to us, the audience, and the most authentic reasonable and sound theatre seen in some time. The subject matter is as real today as it was in the ’50’s and Hansberry’s play is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
Deftly directed by artistic director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and with strong support from the entire cast the production soars. Yolanda Franklin is the sympathetic, tired yet determined to keep the peace Ruth, Kaja Dunn’s girl of the hour Benetha fits in perfectly as the prideful and rebel voice, and LaTaj Myers is wonderful as the wide-eyed youngster Travis.
Add Kent Weingardt’s Karl Lander, the guy who tries to talk (read bribe) the family out of moving into the all white neighborhood and comes across as despicable just because and Lawrence Brown is beautiful as the Nigerian student and love interest, Joseph Asagai. Dail Desmond Richard as the ‘rich colored boy friend’ George Murchison is right on target as he treats the Youngers as some aliens from another world.
Costume designer Alina Bokovikova’s costumes help sort the different cultures and Sean Fanning’s set is picture perfect down to the fading wallpaper when the pictures are removed. Luke Olson’s lighting, Kevin Anthenill’s sound and Daniel Lloyd’s wigs all contribute the overall success of this piece.
“Raisin” is as strong and prideful a production as is the determined plant Mama nurses throughout the play. Set on the windowsill, with barely enough light or water to survive but with enough unconditional love and care, the family like the plant, will thrive and a new chapter in history will be written for all the Youngers.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through March 4th
Organization: Moxie Theatre
Phone: 858-598-7620
Production Type: Drama
Where: 6663 El Cajon Blvd.
Ticket Prices: $20.00-$40.00
Web: MOXIETheatre.com
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Davis is a theatre critic based in San Diego. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com