Review
?A beautiful, lovable play. It is affectionately human, funny and touching. . . . A work of theatrical magic in which the usual barrier between audience and stage disappears.?
John Chapman, New York News
?An honest, intelligible, and moving experience.?
Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune
?Miss Hansberry has etched her characters with understanding, and told her story with dramatic impact. She has a keen sense of humor, an ear for accurate speech and compassion for people.?
Robert Coleman, New York Mirror
?A Raisin in the Sun has vigor as well as veracity.?
Brooks Atkinson, New York Times
?It is honest drama, catching up real people. . . . It will make you proud of human beings.?
Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram & Sun
?A wonderfully emotional evening.?
John McClain, New York Journal American
From the Hardcover edition.
A Raisin in the Sun ANNOTATION
The powerful story of an African American family. Unabridged. 2 cassettes.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
When it was first produced in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for that season and hailed as a watershed in American drama. A pioneering work by an African-American playwright, the play was a radically new representation of black life. "A play that changed American theater forever."—The New York Times.
FROM THE CRITICS
Sacred Fire
A Raisin in the Sun,
written by the then twenty-nine-year-old
Hansberry, was the "movinﾽ on up" morality play of the
1960s. Martin had mesmerized millions, and integration was seen as the stairway to
heaven. Raisin had something for everyone, and for this reason it was the recipient of the prestigious New York Drama Critics
Circle Award.
The place: a tenement flat in Southside, Chicago. The time:
post—World War II. Lena Younger, the strong-willed matriarch, is the glue that holds
together the Younger family. Walter Lee is her married, thirty-something son who, along
with his wife and sister, lives in his motherﾽs apartment. He is short on meeting
responsibilities but long on dreams. Beneatha (thatﾽs right, Beneatha) is Waiterﾽs
sister—an upwardly mobile college student who plans to attend medical school.
Mama Lena is due a check from her late husbandﾽs insurance, and Waiter
Lee is ready to invest it in a liquor store. The
money represents his opportunity to assert his manhood. It will bring the jump start he
needs to set his life right. Beneatha tells him that itﾽs "mamaﾽs money to do with
as she pleases," and that she doesnﾽt really expect any for her schooling. However,
Mama wants to use her new money for a new beginningﾽin a new house, in a new neighborhood
(white).
Walter cries, and Mama relents. She refrains from paying cash for the
house and places a deposit instead, giving Waiter the difference to share equally between
his investment and Beneathaﾽs college fund. Walter squanders the entire amount.
Meanwhile, Mama receives a call from the neighborhood "welcome committee"
hoping to dissuade the family from moving in.
While roundly criticized for being politically accommodating to whites, Raisin
accurately reflected the aspirations of a newly nascent black middle
class.
Library Journal
The film version of Hansberry's landmark play A Raisin in the Sun (1961) was the first depiction of African American life seen by mainstream America. Hansberry included in her screen version several scenes of the Younger family interacting with the white world to show their deprivation and the subtle forms of racism they encountered in their everyday lives. In typical Hollywood fashion most of those scenes were cut, which softened the drama's angry voice. This new edition of the uncut original was edited by Hansberry's ex-husband and literary executor Nemiroff, who made a lifelong commitment to seeing that Hansberry's talent was fully recognized. African American collections as well as film collections will find this script of interest.-- Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass.
Art & Photography
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