Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Robert O’Hara’s grim, deliberately-acted dissection of A RAISIN IN THE SUN opens at the Public Theater

• By drediman
• October 26, 2022
• No Comments

Last night, The Public Theater’s revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun opened Off-Broadway at the Newman Theater. A fascinating companion piece to Elevator Repair Service’s historically-culled production of Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge that recently played in the same building, the revival — which was first seen in 2019 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with a slightly different cast — refuses to be pinned down as a museum piece (more on this later). For those of you unfamiliar with the play, A Raisin in the Sun tells the story of the Younger family, a Black family living in a cramped South Side apartment in 1950s Chicago. As they struggle to make ends meet, dreams are made and tested.

Directed with scalpel-like precision by Robert O’Hara (the playwright of incendiary works like Bootycandy, Barbecue, etc.), his production is a conscious dissection of the classic play from today’s fraught perspective. As such, this distressed A Raisin in the the Sun registers like a grim version of Ms. Hansberry’s beloved play, complete with subtle reinterpretations of the play’s familiar characters, as well as the new addition of a ghostly presence (no spoilers here). Occasionally, the production disrupts the play’s originally intended naturalism, breaking the fourth wall to extenuate the extremities of the characters’ inner lives. Most conspicuously rendered is the revival’s concluding tableau, which may strike theatergoers as either heavy-handed or devastating. I found it somewhere in between.

Just like the current revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman on Broadway, the production is chock full of performances that make fascinating, deliberate choices. In general, the actors have been instructed to play up the desperation, thankfully without altering the DNA of Ms. Hansberry’s work too much. Coming off most successfully is the trifecta of leading performances by Francois Battiste (Walter), Tonya Pinkins (Lena), and Mandi Masden (Ruth). Mr. Battiste and Ms. Masden maximize the rawness and intensity of their portrayals, imbuing Walter and Ruth’s relationship with amped up conflict and sexual chemistry. As Lena — the Younger family’s matriarch —  veteran stage actress Tonya Pinkins brings ample charisma and her vital stage presence to the role.

RECOMMENDED

A RAISIN IN THE SUN
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater
2 hours, 50 minutes (with on intermission)
Through November 20