I cannot imagine a better start to Black History Month than this production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. The title is drawn from a poem by Langston Hughes:

“What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

…

Maybe it just sags

Like a heavy load

Or does it explode?”

This play, set in Chicago in the 1950s, explores the hopes and dreams of an African American family, even modest ambitions being frustrated by the society in which they live, their position in it, and their consequent grinding poverty. The family comprises the stoical matriarchal grandmother Lena (Doreene Blackstock); her adult son and his wife; her teenage daughter; and her adolescent grandson, who sleeps on the sofa, as they all live together in a small, cramped, dark, mouldy apartment, sharing their flat with cockroaches and the communal bathroom with multiple other families. What creates the drama is that their dreams are not aligned, and tend in different directions; so when the grandmother receives a sizeable cheque from her late husband’s life insurance policy, the stage is set for conflict. Should the money be used to buy a house? Or to enable the son to invest in a business? Or to fund the daughter’s medical training to become a doctor?

It is a brilliant piece of writing. The characters are deliciously well-observed, from the wife Ruth (Cash Holland) who, exhausted by the combination of pregnancy, domestic labour and hopelessness, embodies the “sags like a heavy load”; to her husband Walter (Solomon Israel), tempted by ill-advised get-rich-quick schemes and desperate to emulate the worldly success of other men, hot-tempered and liable to “explode” (which he does – expertly and memorably).With an acute combination of humour, drama, anger and philosophy, the play depicts the battle of aspirations and values which takes place within the family. Ultimately, the family is drawn back together by pride in their shared humanity and the need to stand united to face the challenges of a hostile world: the ending might seem like a positive one, but powerfully suggests that maybe it is only the beginning of a further experience of conflict and struggle against prejudice.

The daughter Beneatha (dynamically embodied by Joséphine-Fransilja Brookman) is a particularly interesting character, still at an age where she is flirting with ideologies and trying on identities. These are partly personified by her two contrasting male friends, the successful rich college boy George (Gilbert Kyem Jnr) who proffers social status and affluence but belittles the value of her “thoughts”, versus the intellectual African Joseph/Bobo (Kenneth Omole) who encourages her to reconnect with her Nigerian heritage. It is a mark of the play’s enduring freshness that this character comes across as if she could have been written yesterday, not over 65 years ago.

All the actors brought their complex, unpredictable, sharply drawn and fully-rounded characters to life in every action, every gesture, every movement. The direction was pitch perfect. The action moved along at a great pace through the gripping twists and turns of the tightly constructed plot, lively and entertaining. I loved the soundtrack: the intellectually challenging combination of sound effects at critical points in the play or between set changes – rumbles and thunder and metal and railroads and clinking and possibly pick axes? The set was really effective too, with its realistically damp-stained paper-thin walls, through which we could often see the characters when off-stage, in their bedrooms, still silently exerting their influence on the psychological complexities of the family relationships.

Sadly, the one thing I struggled with was hearing all the words. My neighbour (in row M) had a similar experience. Most of the time it was fine; but when the actors were speaking in particularly strong American or African accents; and/or facing away from the audience; and/or speaking quickly and/or quietly, it could be quite a strain to follow. The Playhouse has infrared headphones available to increase the dialogue level for you, so do ask the Box Office or Front of House staff if you anticipate you might need these; a friend in the row behind did so, and found them extremely helpful.