A Raisin in the Sun (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis)

SEEN (by one of us): May 18, 2022

 

A Raisin in the Sun

by LORRAINE HANSBERRY
directed by AUSTENE VAN

McGuire Proscenium Stage

 

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” In 1951, poet Langston Hughes posed these questions, and Lorraine Hansberry answered with a theatrical masterpiece that broke down racial barriers both on and off the stage. The play follows the three-generation Younger family as they grapple with different definitions of the American dream and how to achieve it. When the matriarch, Lena, buys a home in an all-white neighborhood, the Youngers are greeted by thinly veiled racism and financial pitfalls that threaten to pull the family apart and push their dreams out of reach.

Three things to know

• Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s own family’s experience in Chicago in the 1930s, A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959 and, for the first time, hailed an all-Black principal cast, a Black playwright and a Black director.
• The play was nominated for four Tony Awards, and Hansberry was the first Black woman to be produced on Broadway.
• Director Austene Van is an acclaimed Twin Cities theater professional, co-founder of New Dawn Theatre Company and Producing Artistic Director at Yellow Tree Theatre. She was last seen on the Guthrie stage playing Truvy in our 2019 production of Steel Magnolias.