A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun • 2h 8m
Directed by Daniel Petrie • 1961 • United States
Starring Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee
Lorraine Hansberry’s immortal “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. Two years later, the production came to the screen, directed by Daniel Petrie. The original stars—including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee—reprise their roles as members of an African American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment, in this deeply resonant tale of dreams deferred. The Youngers await a life-insurance check they hope will change their circumstances, but tensions arise over how to use the money. Vividly rendering Hansberry’s sharp observations on generational conflict and housing discrimination, Petrie’s film captures the high stakes, shifting currents, and varieties of experience within black life in midcentury America.
Up Next in A Raisin in the Sun
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Lorraine Hansberry on A RAISIN IN THE...
When Lorraine Hansberry’s play A RAISIN IN THE SUN opened in New York in March 1959, its author became the first African American female playwright to have a production on Broadway. The play went on to be named the best of the year by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. In the following illustrat...
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Imani Perry on A RAISIN IN THE SUN
In the following interview, conducted in April 2018, Imani Perry, author of “Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry,” describes how playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s childhood experiences informed the story of A RAISIN IN THE SUN, and the importance of Chicago as t...
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Mia Mask on A RAISIN IN THE SUN
In the following 2018 program, Mia Mask, film scholar and editor of “Poitier Revisited,” describes the behind-the-scenes clashes between actors Claudia McNeil and Sidney Poitier during the theatrical production of A RAISIN IN THE SUN, the racism the cast experienced during the filming, and how th...
