BWW Reviews: Circle Players' A RAISIN IN THE SUN

With the strong, focused direction of Clay Hillwig and the uniformly consistent and superb performances of an exceptional cast, Circle Players starts off 2011 with its impressively mounted revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. With a story that is as potent and as relevant today as it was at the time of the play's 1959 Broadway debut (in fact, the play was the first written by an African-American woman to be produced on the Great White Way), A Raisin in the Sun follows the struggling but proud Younger family as they strive to make their lives better on Chicago's South Side.

Hansberry's obvious affection for the Youngers is felt throughout her sharply written dialogue - and her incisive consideration of the family's efforts to pursue its own version of the American dream, amid the changing racial climate of post-World War II America, closely mirrors events that her own family endured prior to the war. Her vividly created, multi-dimensional characters are well-crafted individuals to whom you find yourself emotionally drawn. In fact, if you find yourself unmoved by events taking place onstage, you must be heartless, so completely involving is Hansberry's script.

That script - and the subsequent success of the play on Broadway (including a 2004 revival that starred Sean Combs, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan and Phylicia Rashad) and in films - has rendered it an American classic, often revered and sometimes even vilified (George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum contains a vignette called "The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play," that almost certainly satirizes Hansberry's work).

If your exposure to A Raisin in the Sun comes primarily from an English class in high school, you certainly owe it to yourself to experience the power of the piece as presented live onstage. Certainly, Circle Players' production will provoke thought and, hopefully, encourage conversation about - and the consideration of - the continued inequities to be found in today's housing market.

The play's action takes place during a few weeks in early autumn as the Youngers await the arrival of a a check for $10,000 - the payoff for the life insurance of the deceased family patriarch. Each of the Youngers has an idea about how the money should be spent: Mama Lena (played by Nashville educator Dara Talibah) hopes to find her family a dream home away from the dreary tenement she's lived in for more than 35 years; her son, Walter Lee (Michael "Diallo" McLendon) has his eyes set on investing in a liquor store as a means of making things better for his wife (LaToya Gardner) and son (played by the capable young actor, Eric Williams II); and daughter Beneatha (Shelena Walden) plans to use her share of the payout for her medical school tuition. With these conflicting dreams, set amid the already simmering racial turmoil of the post-war era, the stage is set for domestic drama that could possibly rip the family apart. Thanks to Hansberry's characters and the expertly plotted action, the onstage struggles of the Youngers are deeply felt, thereby making the story all the more accessible to any audience, regardless of its economic or racial make-up.

Director Hillwig and his cast deserves every accolade they've received from their capacity audiences during the show's run thus far: the members of the ensemble are amazingly consistent, with nary a false note or movement to be found among this superb cast. Hillwig's attention to detail is felt throughout the production and you leave the theater feeling as if you've actually been privy to the goings-on in the living room of a real family. The obvious care exhibited by the director, his design team and the actors adds top notes of realism to a script that is more than fifty years old, while underscoring the play's action with pathos and humor.

Talibah is wonderfully warm as the family matriarch, the long-suffering and hard-working Lean Younger, who has provided her family with structure, care and love throughout their lives. Interestingly, this talented actress is revisiting the role that she first played as an undergraduate at Tennessee State University and her portrayal is so compelling, so completely convincing, that you can't help but wonder how her earlier performance compares. As Lena makes her difficult choice to move the family to the all-white Clybourne Heights neighborhood, Talibah demonstrates her tremendous range while creating a character that is free of any stagey artifice.

McLendon delivers a tightly wound, but thoroughly believable, performance as Walter Lee, who bristles at his station in life and who dreams of making things better for his wife and child. His reading of the role is surprisingly fresh and unrestrained by the plethora of memorable actors who've played the role previously.

The strikingly gorgeous Shelena Walden, as Beneatha Younger, gives a vibrant performance, capturing the hopes and dreams of her own character (who is trying to define her role in an ever-changing world, while claiming her African heritage with sometimes amusing zeal). Walden is given two outstanding leading men of her own with whom to spar onstage: Elliott Winston Robinson is on-target as the Nigeria-born suitor who sparks Beneatha's desires to learn more about the land of her forebears; and Max Desir gives an extraordinary performance as George Murchison, the scion of a wealthy black family.

In relatively minor, but altogether essential, roles, Jim Manning and Tobyus Green are both exceptional. Manning is terrific as the representative of the all-white Clybourne Heights homeowners' council, playing an officious little man who's clearly out of his element during his visit to the Youngers' home. Green, who gives a truly outstanding performance, makes the most of his brief time onstage to create an anguished few minutes that precipitates the play's denouement.

Yet there are two other actors who truly elevate this production to near-greatness, so vividly drawn are their characterizations. LaToya Gardner is stunning as Walter Lee's devoted wife Ruth, giving a tour de force dramatic performance that is among the best we've seen in Nashville. She refuses to take the easy route at any point of her exquisitely timed performance, making surprising and compelling choices that are simply exhilarating, lifting the character of Ruth to new heights.

Finally, the always lovely and glamourous Courtney McClellan displays a talent heretofore untapped in her previous Circle Players appearances. As the Youngers' meddling neighbor Mrs. Johnson, McClellan strips away her outward beauty (I'm uncertain how she does it, yet somehow she does) to craft a characterization that is remarkably unlike anything you would expect from her. McClellan's rapid-fire delivery of her lines and the total control of her portrayal results in a performance that is by turns surprising and yet somehow expected.

Ralph Gabriel's richly textured and artistically rendered set provides the ideal backdrop for the play's action, while Ryan Vogel's lighting design sets an evocative moodiness over the stage, and Mel Fowler-Green's costume design effectively clothes the characters in period fashion that is quite perfect.

- A Raisin in the Sun. By Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Clay Hillwig. Produced by LaTonya Turner. Presented by Circle Players at The Keeton Theatre, Donelson. Through January 23. For tickets, call (6125) 332-PLAY (7529); to learn more about Circle Players, visit the company website at www.circleplayers.net.

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