A play that’s become a modern classic is now bound to be remembered as a classic production by WBTT. A strong story, cast and director bring out the universal qualities of a distinctly American experience. As A Raisin in the Sun re-creates that of urban African-Americans half a century ago, it also shows how timeless is the struggle of members of a family to each realize their dreams of success.
What brings dreams in range of coming true for the Youngers is a substantial check for Mama Lena (Alice M. Gatling, who gives the matriarch mythic proportions). It’s an insurance settlement after the recent death of her husband.
Walter Lee, the son who now regards yet is unsure of himself as head of the family, resents chauffeuring a rich white boss. He wants to go with BoBo (confident James Pierre) and another pal into a liquor business. That’ll improve life for wife and son too. (Will Little’s explosive Walter boils even beneath the surface, whether it’s rebellious or loving, ambitious or alcohol-fueled.)
Saucy, outspoken Beneatha (full-of-life Dhakeria Cunningham) shares her brother Walter’s ambition but to be a doctor. Focused on school, she’s been seriously delving into her African roots, yet without eschewing a social life. Will she prefer wealthy George (handsome Emmanuel Avraham, playing the role down to his white bucks) or the socio-political minded Nigerian graduate student Joseph Asagai (stately Joshua Nwankwo)?
To complicate matters, Walter’s frail wife Ruth (Jaszy McAllister, being supportive yet sensible) is pregnant. And this when their young son Travis (realistically played by Bryson Gregory) has to sleep on the living-room couch. Under such conditions, despite everyone working (in the menial jobs open to them), small wonder that Mama Lena has gone out and put money down on a new house for the family. How little she realized what opposition she’d have to face -- not only from her son, but from her prospective neighbors. They’re white, and they’ve sent an emissary (David Abolafia, so effective at unease) to bribe the Youngers not to come.
Dreams threaten to become nightmares as Mama’s plans for the rest of the insurance money go awry. Gatling and Little convey their characters’ related actions and anxiety perfectly.
Director Jim Weaver hasn’t allowed an irrelevant movement or gesture from any of the actors. A scenic designer (none is mentioned in the program) might well have made the Youngers’ flat appear a bit smaller and dimmer, though, with better proportions between sparse kitchen and living room. Everything says “stage set” for a play that is so realistic.
WBTT proves that many years after its historic opening, A Raisin in the Sun still can poignantly ask the question in the poem from which the play takes its title: “What happens to a dream deferred?”
