Review: A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity Rep

A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry's mid-century play about an urban, working-class, black family has gotten a lot of well-deserved attention in the past few years. There was a critically-acclaimed (and star-studded) Broadway revival in 2004. In 2008, principals in the Broadway revival starred in a television movie.  Brian McEleney, directs Trinity Rep's cast of stage veterans and Brown/Trinity Consortium students.

In Raisin, the Younger family has lost their patriarch, Walter Younger, Sr. He was a family man who tried to get ahead, and never caught a break. He managed to eek out a modest life on the South Side of Chicago for his wife, children and grandchild who live together in a rented, walk up tenement apartment. Walter Younger, Sr. worked himself into an early grave. A provider to the end, he left a $10,000 life insurance policy to his wife, Lena (Barbara Meek).

The play is set on a Friday, the end of a long workweek. The check should be in Saturday morning's mail. The family is fantasizing about being rich.  What Lena will do with the money is the question that fuels the plot.

Walter Lee Younger Jr. (Joe Wilson, Jr.) desperately wants to invest the $10,000 in a liquor store. Walter Lee believes that part-ownership in this business will finally propel his family into the middle-class. Lena is more likely to use the money to pay for her daughter's Beneatha's (Angela K. Thomas) medical school tuition. Lena believes that good Christian women should not make money selling liquor. The sibling rivalry between Walter and Beneatha is intensified by too many people living in a too small space. Walter's wife, Ruth (Lynnette R. Freeman), and their son Travis (Dustin Isom and Nigel Richards in alternating performances) are caught in the middle. Ruth wants to stand behind her husband, to support him. Experience has made her wary.

Lynnette R. Freeman, in her first starring role at Trinity, gives a transparent performance as Walter's long-suffering wife, Ruth. That is to say that she lets the audience see into the character's soul. Ruth's conflict about an unwanted pregnancy, is seen in Freeman's body, in weariness of her face and the alternately tense and flaccid texture of her body.

Angela K. Thomas makes her Trinity debut in Raisin as Beneatha Younger, a politically-aware college student who wants to experience a world beyond Chicago, beyond Illinois, beyond North America. Thomas turns in a finely constructed portrait of Beneatha, who is constantly pushing against societal constraints and expectations. Beneatha is determined to be a doctor, not a nurse. She is starry-eyed for her student-professor, Joseph Asagai (Jude Sandy) who is a native of Nigeria. She tolerates, only barely, George Murchison a would-be suitor who is more interested in assimilation than Africa. Charlie Hudson III gives a fine performance as the preppy, upwardly mobile, George.

Barbara Meek turns in an character-defining performance as the matriarch of the Younger family, Lena. Regular Trinity audiences assume and expect such performances from Meek and she, once again, delivers. Meek and director McEleney work beautifully together. It is through Meek that McEleney keeps Raisin from sliding into a historical, feel-good, civil-rights-preaching production. Meek's presence on stage also gives the production a steadiness that it needs.

Joe Wilson, Jr. is as compelling a performer as any I have seen. He can chew scenery with the best. Wilson's characterization of Walter Lee Younger, Jr. begins in the red zone of intensity and there is simply no place to go.

For much of the production, Wilson seems to be in an entirely different role in a completely different play than his cast mates.  Unfortunately, McEleney doesn't seem able to finesse the subtlety out of Wilson that is required for this role. There is no unexpressed frustration, no quiet desperation, no nuance. Just rage; exploding rage that becomes patently absurd as the narrative winds down.

Johnny Lee Davenport and Mauro Hantman each give fine performances in their small roles.

Michael McGarty's set is tremendous. It is evocative of the urban decay without turning the tenement apartment into a slum. The furnishings let the audience know that this family takes pride in what they have. The well-worn, but high quality divan, that young Travis sleeps on, is a perfect set piece. William Lane's costume design, along with John Ambrosone's lighting and Peter Sasha Hurowitz's sound design do exactly what they should. They support the production in a nearly invisible fashion.

Hansberry's material deals with class and race issues that have faded in many parts of the country, but have not disappeared. In this production, McEleney has crafted some humorous, heart-warming moments that were invisible to me on the page. He has extracted multi-dimensional and completely contemporary performances out of much of the cast. At this moment in our collective conscious, A Raisin in the Sun feels less like history than present-day.

Regular performances of A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity Rep start at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sundays with selected Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 2:00 p.m.

Ticket prices start at $20 with $10 tickets available for Chace Theater's 12th row bench. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office, which is located at 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI or by phone at (401) 351-4242. Visit www.trinityrep.com for more information.

 

 

 

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