A Raisin in the Sun - Headlong Tour

Having had my recent trip to the Leeds Playhouse cancelled whilst travelling there, I've thankfully managed to schedule this in on my upcoming London trip at the Lyric Hammersmith (at a much cheaper price - £15 for the front row stalls). I am glad to read that it was worth rebooking,

Fwiw, Kwame Kwei-Armah seems keen to imagine a 'trilogy' that includes his play, but I do struggle to include his work alongside those of such important - and great - writers as Lorraine Hansberry and Bruce Norris.

A Raisin in the Sun and Clybourne Park won great accolades and awards, the third not yet a Wiki entry, though when in charge Kwame did put it on at the Young Vic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun#The_Raisin_Cycle

Booked

Heads up, this is either running long in the Lyric or is 165minutes plus interval, a shade under three hours this evening.

It is however excellent. Cast and script shine. Simple but elegant direction and set and costumes etc - clearly thought out to be enough to simply let a classic play out.

Something was missing for me in this production. I still remember a production in 2004 at the very same Lyric that was fantastic: moving and funny, with top-notch acting.

I didn't like the set, I thought it was ugly and boring. The acting was fine but I found the actor playing Ruth overly dramatic and the one playing Walter too brash. I think Walter is frustrated but also loving and couldn't see that here. Beneatha was fun and lively but then it is my favourite character.

I left at the interval, not because it was bad but because it didn't match my expectations. The play is fantastic but I think it deserves a better production. I'm curious to see the TV adaptation with Audra McDonald.
m.imdb.com/title/tt0808435/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_i_2

Not sure if it will match the film with the original Broadway cast.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0055353/

I thought this was great. Really enjoyed all the performances. I had only seen Clybourne Park prior to this so it was nice to get further context from this piece.

Saw this tonight from the front row and indeed be warned the stage is EXTREMELY high (completely baffling to me as there didn't seem to be any reason for the playing space to be raised to THAT high a level) It MOSTLY didn't bug me but it was a very much from the waist up viewing experience. And annoyingly there are several stretches where a character sits at the table only to be completely blocked from sight from the downstage chair.

That being said inspite the mentioned above, this is still very much worth seeing even if I found some of the acting occasionally to be lacking (the performances range from good to solid but I sort of kept hoping for them to drop in a bit more), this is still one of those plays that always wins. It's a scorcher of a play and was a thrill to sit amidst a shockingly well behaved schoolgroup who were on the edge of their seats and deeply engaged with the emotional highs and lows of this masterpiece. If you've never seen Raisin before it's worth making the treck to Hammersmith

...just NOT from the front few rows

It’s a story as old as time….money, insiders and outsiders, prejudice, trying to better yourself, how we are sometimes stuck in the lives we have….and mix in some human emotions and sibling rivalries and BINGO….I found the performances here excellent and as you say, the director has trusted the play.
Glad you managed to see it david

I’m so glad I managed to catch this one. Thoroughly enjoyable evening watching a great play with a really responsive audience. Unfortunately, someone”s phone went off in the last minute of Act 2, made worse by a loud ‘I’m so sorry’, repeated a few times.. so I completely missed what was probably a vary poignant and important moment at the end. Annoying!
The Lyric was packed which was also great to see.
Like others have mentioned, I initially hated the blue frame as it seemed unnecessary and restricted our view from the front row. To be fair, I stopped noticing it after a while.
4 stars from me.

Generally concur with comments.

Interesting to view some of this subject matter through a 1958 lens in, what was effectively, a partially apartheid society (for the most part, the areas that the Supreme Court hadn’t yet reached).

I’d forgotten how oblique Lorraine Hansberry needed to be – for example, no mention here of racially restrictive covenants (a decade later established as illegal), or of her family connection to events.

I was reminded of just how outstanding Clybourne Park is; Raisin is excellent as a stand alone work, but together .. a piece of real art. They should really be seen in rep, imo. You’d need two sets of consent for that which might be the problem.

Clever what Hansberry does with the African character. I imagine Bruce Norris reading that and nodding away. They would have enjoyed one anothers company.

There’s a week left to see this in Nottingham and all I can do, after yesterday’s day trip and matinee, is add my recommendation to the generally positive opinions already given.


I was encouraged by the assurances given here that this is a largely faithful production that trusts the audiences to make up their own minds about the relevance of this mid-20c narrative rather than ‘reimagine’ it or throw in 2020s references. From what I remember of an earlier production and my reading of the script, this new production is pretty much what I imagine Lorraine Hanberry intended* (I’ll confine anything that might seem a spoiler to footnotes).


I was baffled (and remain baffled) at the set. What was achieved by setting the scene yards behind the front of the stage and then raising it several feet above I don’t know. Perhaps there are technical reasons beyond my immediate understanding but it does rather seem a restriction without much compensatory advantage. But it’s not that bad and, as thaneofglamis mentions above, people could choose (as I did) to grab one of the empty seats in rows A-C for the second half (Indeed, yesterday a couple seemed to plump for that right from the start). When booking, be aware that the plan is a bit misleading. I booked row D on the assumption that rows A-C would have been removed (they don't show on the plan at all) but they weren’t. I thought I’d booked the front row but my leg room was restricted by the backs of the unsold seats in row C so I decided the very slight difference in perspective was a price worth paying for extra comfort in the second half. I wasn’t the only one. Audience behaviour was not nearly as bad as at the Almeida recently. In the early minutes there was some loud and persistent rustling behind me but when I looked round I saw the culprit was already getting fixed looks from his neighbours. It died down very quickly.


I thought the performances were excellent. Josephine-Fransilja Brookman captured Beneatha’s exuberance, optimism and innocence while still getting across Hansberry’s specific direction that she is ‘not as pretty’ as Ruth (Cash Holland). Doreene Blackstock as Lena (Mama) is a study in compassionate dignity and Solomon Israel is superb in the moving role of Walter, who is called on to be hero, villain and victim – sometimes all at once. Honestly, though, I didn’t think there were any weaknesses in the cast.


This play isn't put on often enough in my opinion.  I advised my London friends to see the Hammersmith leg of the tour before I'd even seen this production myself.  Now I'm suggesting to my northern friends that a day trip to Nottingham for one of the two remaining matinees (with the caveat that the timing of the 1330 Thursday show seems to have 'school parties'  written all over ii!)


*
Possible spoilers
I thought Jonah Russell gave Karl Lindner a rather unequivocally negative portrayal compared to the previous production I saw where he seemed more genuinely conflicted by the job he’s been sent to do. In particular, his parting I hope you people know what you’re doing sounded very much like an out-and-out threat rather than concern for their welfare. Either interpretation is, of course, valid; but I thought the way the earlier production presented him was more in tune with the way I read the script.


In general, though, the script (including Hansberry’s one use of the-word-that-can’t-even be uttered-in-discussion these days) survives unscathed. There seem to have been a few little snips but no real sign of bowdlerisation. The only exception might be that they seem to have missed out Ruth’s telling Beneatha 'You can’t go out with the poor boy looking like that' (owtte) – but maybe I just had an absent moment when that line was delivered.