A Raisin in the Sun

As the great writer James Baldwin once noted, “Black people ignored the theatre because the theatre had always ignored them.” With its all-Black cast (bar one minor actor) and stark portrayal of racism in Civil Rights-era America, producers fretted that Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun would not chime with Broadway’s overwhelmingly White audiences. It tells the story of a Black family’s struggles with identity, discriminationWhen people are treated unfairly due to characteristics such as gender, race and age. and broken dreams in ChicagoOne of the biggest cities in the USA. ’s still-segregatedA racist policy separating White and Black people. It was used in the southern United States from 1877 to 1968. South Side as they decide what to do with a sudden financial windfall from the death of the family patriarchMale authority figure.. It took 18 months for the play’s producer to raise enough money for the play’s debut, and the investment was seen as highly risky — who, they said, would want to watch a play entirely about Black people? Many underestimated the power and resonance of Hansberry’s captivating work, as well as its deep relevance to contemporary issues. But when the curtain rose on opening night in 1959, Raisin in the Sun became the first ever play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, and the first with a Black director too. Hansberry received a standing ovation and resounding subsequent success, with critics saying that her work “changed American theatre forever".