i would love to see this as a play.

3/5 Stars

Well, this play was pretty decent. It was entertaining enough and all of that ... and yet, I still don't like reading plays. Therefore, I wasn't about to give this anything more than an average rating. So while I appreciated how this took place in Chicago (so I could visualize everything that much better), and how I could relate to Beneatha and her struggle at becoming a doctor, when everyone was pushing her to become a nurse - because that's more of a "female" job - I lacked a connection with everything/anything else.

So, overall, it was a good play. But it's probably much better acted out, as opposed to being read.

Great characters, great dialogue. It has things to say, yet it doesn't feel preachy. The audiobook is done by the original Broadway cast: EXCELLENT

"An end to misery! To stupidity! Don't you see there isn't any real progress, Asagai, there is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our little picture in front of us--our own little mirage of what we think is the future."

This is the best book I've read this year, one of the best I've ever read. It did everything I think a great story should and did it exceptionally well, that is deposit the reader at the end more illuminated, stirred with a better understanding.

The play is centered around the Younger family, a Black family living in Chicago post World War II. With the main characters representing three generations: Lena/Mama, the matriarch of the family representing the older generation, Lena's son Walter, his wife Ruth and sister Beneatha representing the new generation and Travis, the grandchild representing the future generation. The title of the play itself is from Langston Hughes' poem Harlem:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Told in brilliant storytelling, the dreams of all these characters are presented, weighed, scoffed at, some humbler than others but all generations keeping and trying to maintain a dream that the system they're living under not only refuses to recognize, but actively works to ruin.

I'll be thinking about this story for a while, going through the incredible characterization, all the wonderful scenes and there are several that I will pick up and look at still marveling, and that superb ending.

مویزی در آفتاب یک تراژدی خانگی پنج پرده‌ای است که موضوع محوری‌اش را تبعیض نژادی سفیدپوستان و سیاهپوستان امریکایی تشکیل می‌دهد. در این بین نیز اشاره‌هایی به جنبش پان آفریقا و رد خداباوری در نسل جدید می‌پردازد.
تکیه‌ی نمایش بر مسئله‌ی تبعیض نژادی و تبعات آن مثل فقر، حقارت، تحصیلات و ... است.
شخصیت اصلی نمایشنامه پسر خانواده است که با جاه‌طلبی‌هایش می‌خواهد پول بیمه‌ی پدر را در راه هدف کاری خودش استفاده کند و مادر اصرار دارد که با این پول یک خانه برای همه‌ی خانواده بخرد چیزی که به گمانش روح پدر از انجامش راضی خواهد بود. از طرف دیگر خواهر او نیز باید هزینه‌ی تحصیلش را از این پول بردارد وگرنه ممکن است این موقعیت را که به شدت برایش مهم است، از دست بدهد. این بین زن پسر خانواده نیز می‌فهمد که باردار است. تقلای بین سقط جنین او به خاطر فقر و مادر برای خرید یک خانه و ایستادگی‌اش برای حفظ خانواده و پسر برای ایجاد کسب و کار جدیدش راه را به جایی می‌برد که آن‌ها شاهد جزئیات بیشتری از همدیگر باشند؛ چیزی که تا به حال بروز پیدا نکرده بوده و شرایط باعث تغییر اندیشه‌ها و اخلاقیاتشان شده.
این تغییرات بیش از همه پسر را شامل می‌شود که چهره‌ی دیگری از خود ارائه می‌دهد که با آنچه مادرش از او به عنوان وارث پدرش توقع داشته و خواهرش به عنوان یک برادر و همسرش به عنوان یک شوهر، کاملا متفاوت است و او را به سمت خودخواهی پیش می‌برد.
درنهایت در لحظه‌ی پیش از اوج آن‌ها چهره‌ای از برادر می‌دیدند که تمام دیدگاه‌هایشان را بهم می‌ریزد. سپس در نقطه‌ی اوج پسر بدل به چیزی می‌شود که همه انتظارش را داشتند و پای اعتقاد مادر برای یکسان بودن تمام بندگان خدا و حفظ خانه و خانواده، ایستادگی می‌کند و تن به خواسته‌ی سفیدپوستان نمی‌دهد.

تمام نمایش‌نامه در یک خانه اتفاق می‌افتد و همین فضا را برای کنش‌های نمایشی محدود می‌کند و نمایش‌نامه بیشتر دیالوگ محور است اما تنش بین شخصیت‌ها باعث می‌شود که حجم زیاد دیالوگ‌ها خسته‌کننده نشوند و کشش داشته باشند. پیشروی ماجراها هم کمک می‌کنند تا داستان از ریتم نیفتد و مخاطب را تا انتها بکشاند.
وجه نمادین خانه و خانواده و زندگی و حیات و امید همه در تک گلدان مادر خلاصه شده‌اند که مادر همیشه حواسش به آن است.

The play opens to show the crowded living room of the Younger family. It’s well loved, with worn furniture, and the tiniest kitchen that you could not swing a cat in. On the couch sleeps Travis, a lad of eleven. As the play progresses, we learn that this tiny space is shared amongst five people. All crammed up against each other, sharing a bathroom down the hall with other families in the apartment block they live in.

Emotions are bound to spill over, and they do. Mama - Lena Younger - the matriarch of the family is waiting for the postman to arrive. As is her son Walter Lee. He’s perhaps even more anxious than she. For in the mail, a cheque is due to arrive, for the princely sum of $10,000. A very decent sum nowadays, let alone in the 1950s. The money is a payout from the life insurance of her husband, now passed. It is his blood, sweat and tears, and ultimately the loss of his life, that makes this mail delivery so terribly important. Her dream is to buy the family a home of their own, and to leave the cockroach infested flat they rent a distant memory. The Younger family have some big decisions to make about where to spend this money. And a Pandora’s Box is opened, as they all have very different ideas - and needs - about how this should be done.

The themes of family, hopes & dreams butting heads is so true.

Is it wrong to want more? To yearn for more than you have. Is it wrong to dream? Or should you just accept your lot in life, knowing that you die inside a little more each day.

As Lena’s daughter (and Walter Lee’s sister) who has dreams of studying to become a doctor wryly observes:

BENEATHA: Yes…we’ve all got acute ghetto-itis.

This play explores what happens when our dreams and reality clash. The dynamics of three generations of the family living under the one roof, shows how differently they view the world and their place in it. There is intelligent humour throughout, which deftly displays that gender roles and sexuality were changing. Women’s expectations of their role in society, as well as how they should look, what sort of job they should aspire to have, were being questioned. As well the need for a man to be a role model to his son, to show it’s ok to want more, and to not buckle and accept the status quo. Ambition could be healthy. The slow burn of the need for equality, to belong and own a home, without fear of segregation is beautifully handled. There are so many moments of utter sadness, as the characters hurt each other with such precision, as only those we love the most are capable of doing.

Walter, for whom being a chauffeur to a rich white man is understandably starting to pall, turns to drink with frustration. For him, the money represents the chance to reinvent himself, which he hopes to do by opening (ironically) a liquor business with two of his friends. And for that, he needs money. More money than he has.

WALTER: Mama--Mama--I want so many things... I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…

It's amazing to think that this play was written in 1959, yet the writing and themes in it are as fresh and valid today as they were then. It shows that good writing stands the test of time and retains its value. The fashions may change, but human emotions don't.

I was lucky enough to see the STC production of this a few weekends ago. The performance blew me away. It’s so good to see a Writer's words brought to life, and seeing this performed on stage was special. I feel so lucky to have seen it.

https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/what...

https://youtu.be/S99M_qDVTOg

The title of the play was taken from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. A huge part of me feels sad that Ms.Hansberry left this world way too early at the age of only 34, as it would have been amazing to see how her work unfolded.

”What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore --
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”
- Langston Hughes

Hold onto your dreams, and never give them up.

What an outstanding play!

Recently I saw an excellent production of A Raisin in the Sun, and it was so good I decided to reread the play. I first read this in college during a course on African American Theater, and as part of the class we watched the 1961 film, starring Sidney Poitier in the role he debuted on Broadway in 1959.

The film is great, but this was my first time seeing the play performed live, and it was incredibly moving. The story follows the Youngers, a black family in Chicago's Southside in the 1950s. All the scenes are set in their cramped apartment, and we quickly learn that tensions are high for the family. The matriarch, Mama Lena, recently lost her husband and is expecting a $10,000 insurance check. Her son, Walter, is drunk with hope that he can use that money to invest in a liquor store. Meanwhile, Mama's daughter, Beneatha, is in college and wants to be a doctor, but she's also juggling two very different suitors, George and Asagai. Walter's wife, Ruth, learns she's pregnant and is worried for the future. The couple's young son, Travis, is forced to sleep on the living room couch every night, and Ruth is worried things will never get better.

What is impressive about this play is how many social issues come up in the family conversations, but it never feels forced. It's just life as it is, and the play became a landmark not just because it was the first time a black woman wrote a play that was performed on Broadway, but because of how relatable these family problems were. Parents not understanding their children. Children experimenting with different cultures. Adults wanting their life to mean more than just an hourly wage. Everyone wishing for a nicer home. What family can't relate to this?

If you ever have a chance to see a production of A Raisin in the Sun, I highly recommend it. Five stars for Lorraine Hansberry.

Note
The title of the play is taken from a poem by Langston Hughes:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore —
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat
Or crust and sugar over —
Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Favorite Quotes
MAMA: Something has changed ... In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity, too ... Now here come you and Beneatha — talking 'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy. You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done. I mean that you had a home; that we kept you out of trouble till you was grown; that you don't have to ride to work on the back of nobody's streetcar — You my children — but how different we done become.

ASAGAI: Then isn't there something wrong in a house — in a world — where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death of a man?

MAMA: Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning — because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.

I don’t often read plays and find them difficult to read, the live experience is obviously much better. However this is a remarkable play and is well worth the effort. Hansberry was a talented writer who died far too young. Nina Simone wrote the song “To be Young, Gifted and Black” about her. This play debuted on Broadway in 1959 with Sidney Poitier playing Walter; a role he reprised in the film.
The play is about the Younger family: mother Lena, brother and sister, Walter and Beneatha, Walter’s wife Ruth and their son Travis. Lena’s husband has recently died and some insurance money is due. The play revolves around what should be done with the money, about hopes and aspirations and differing views about the future. It is about the desire progress, to get on; in this case to get out of that particular part of Chicago. The insurance pay-out is ten thousand dollars and so it is also about whose dreams should be funded. Although it was written in the 1950s it is still relevant and has meaning. It is about dreams and whether they will in the words of Langston Hughes “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun”.
Hansberry once said that, “In order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific” and that is why this resonates over the years in relation to those in poverty, suffering from injustice and specifically about the black experience. There is a balance in the play between hopes for the future and what might be possible and a sense that nothing will change and it is hopeless to try. James Baldwin commented:
“Never before, in the entire history of American theater, had so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on stage.”
The play highlights issues about segregation, dignity and respect. It’s powerful to read and there is an excellent film rendering as well.

Weathervane Playhouse is putting on a production of this incredible show just down the street from my house, opening this weekend, and I'm running the sound board for a few shows. I went to my first (and perhaps only -- eek!) rehearsal last night and homg. I was excited because hello, this is a classic, but I was NOT expecting to be so enveloped in the story while half my brain was concentrating on learning sound cues. It's really a testament to Ms Hansberry's incredible dialogue, because 95% of the time I was reading along with the script and unable to watch the actors onstage, but GOD. What an incredible show. Twice I found myself sitting there at the sound board with tears running down my face, because it just felt like these words were punching me in the stomach. The cast have absolutely embedded themselves in these roles and are fascinating to watch and listen to as they move through the show. Everyone should either see or read this play at some point in their lives, it has such a strong message.

I'm over here kicking myself because I could have seen Denzel Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Sophie Okonedo, and Sean Patrick Thomas in this play when I was in NYC last summer but I picked Aladdin instead. Alas.

[11th Grade]

Out of all of the books I had to read this year for school, this one was the least boring.

هانسبری این نمایشنامه را در سال 1959 میلادی نوشته است. مویزی در آفتاب اولین نمایشنامه‌ی یک نویسنده‌ی سیاه‌پوست و با موضوعی درباره‌ی سیاه‌پوستان است که در برادوی اجرا شده است. سبک خاصی که او در نگارش برگزیده از دیگر سبک‌های دورانش متفاوت است. درواقع هانسبری عضوی از جنبش سیاه‌باوری است که در نیمه‌ی دوم قرن بیستم تلاش بر بیداری و آگاهی سیاهان نسبت به وضعیت اسفناک خود در جامعه آمریکا می‌کردند و مهم‌تر از آن، تلاششان بر این بود که به سفید‌پوستان و به‌طورکلی رنگین‌پوستان بفهمانند که سیاهان هم یکی مانند خود شما هستند. شنیدن این حرف‌ها شاید برای ما تازگی نداشته باشد و با دیده‌ی تحقیر به مردم آن‌ دوران بنگریم اما واقعیت این است که تنها چون تاریخ از آن دوره گذر کرده ما به آن دوره با دیده‌ی حقارت نگاه می‌کنیم. در زمان نگارش این نمایشنامه هنوز صدسال از قانون لغو برده‌داری نگذشته بود.
***
بخشی از مرور کتاب «مویزی در آفتاب» در سایت آوانگارد که به قلم «حجت سلیمی» منتشر شده است.
برای خواندن کامل مطلب به لینک زیر مراجعه فرمایید:
https://avangard.ir/article/463

This book actually made me angry while reading it. The details are fuzzy as to exactly why it upset me so much, but it was not the emotion that the author probably wanted me to feel. Hansberry probably expected me to give an "awww" and feel bad for her characters and then clutch the book to my chest sigh and say "how relevant." Wrong. It's truly hard for me to write a comment about this without turning the comment box into a guide of "Swears and Curse Words You Should Use When Something Gets You Really, Really Pissed". The plot, characters, dialogue, action, word choice, literary devices, etc... were all OBVIOUS. Not "universal" as most would want you to believe. There lays a thick *bleeping* line that separates the obvious from the universal works, that line is the wall of a publishing company building. Hansberry slipped this one through the mail slot. From this I learned what not to write.