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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2000)
January ?1, 2000? THEÄTE A Portland production of R aisin in the S u n inspires a tribute to the acclaimed lesbian playwright PHOTO BY OW EN CAREY by R upert K innard the Year. Hansberry’s education included studying African history under noted black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and she was intensely involved in the civil rights move ment of the early 1960s. She also associated with such black cultur al giants as Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and Paul Robe son. Her activism within the queer community, however, is rarely celebrated. I, like so many others, am most familiar with the 1961 film version of the play, which cap tures the definitive performances of Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee and A scene from A R T ’s production of A R aisin in th e Sun Claudia McNeil— all from the original Broadway cast. The film stands on its aving seen a new (and unfortunately rare) own as great cinema, and anyone not able to local production of Raisin in the Sun, now experience the stage production will be well- playing at the Artists Repertory Theatre, rewarded by renting the video. 1 found myself pondering the importance Having watched the film more than a half- and impact of sexual identity on an artist’s art. dozen times since I last saw a stage production Most of what has been written recently about of Raisin in Chicago during the mid-’70s, I had Raisin has centered on the various themes forgotten just how much the play differs from incorporated within it and the justifiable the film. The current staging at ART is a strik acknowledgment that the play remains one of ing reminder of the powerful dialogue that was the greatest works of the last century. cut from the play’s nearly three hours for the Most of what has been written about the movie version’s 128 minutes (which was con play’s author, Lorraine Hansberry, has omitted densed by screenwriter Hansberry). the fact that she was a lesbian— or at least The play revolves around a family’s antici bisexual. It is certainly debatable whether or pation of a relatively large sum of money in the not one’s sexual orientation needs to be men form of a life insurance check and how it tioned in biographies, though it seems clear affects a young struggling black man, his wife, that we live in a society that assumes hetero son, sister and mother who share a tiny sexuality if not told otherwise— especially if Chicago apartment in 1952. Hansber the fact that the artist was married is ry’s sensitive and complex view of mentioned. the world is exactly what makes Since she was bom in 1930 and Raisin in the Sun brilliant theater. moved to New York in the early All the themes that are 1950s, Lorraine Hansberry can’t be touched on in the film— assimi considered part of the Harlem lation, racism, sexism, abortion, Renaissance, which occurred dur classism— are expanded upon in ing the 19?0s and early 1930s and A R Ts wonderfully realized pro popularized the works of writers such duction of Raisin m the Sun. The Lorraine as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale staging is fluid and the intimate set Hansberry Hurston. But Hansberry, along with ting of the family’s apartment is ideal for this theater-mostly-in-the-round. writer-activist James Baldwin, was among the black authors who embodied the enduring The cast ably meets the challenges of the vigor of the late 1950s and early 1960s. All powerful dialogue. Actor Brenda Phillips four of these writers are commonly known to impressively manages to convey the profound wisdom of the family matriarch, who is obvi have been lesbian, gay or bisexual. ously from a fairly simple background. The pro Throughout the 1950s, Hansberry con duction conveys humor, mystery, struggle, con tributed works exploring such varied subjects as flict and is ultimately uplifting. Nothing gets in the linking of sexism to gay oppression and the the way of the inspiring story that continues to exploration of butch-femme role playing to be amazingly relevant some 40 years after it magazines such as O ne and The Ladder, which were publications of fairly young queer organi was written. Just as she is embraced by the African zations of the day. According to her husband, American community as a trailblazer, the queer Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry s homosexuality community should also be proud to claim Lor “was not a peripheral or casual part of her life raine Hansberry as one of our own. but contributed significantly on many levels to the sensitivity and complexity of her view of ■ The Artists Repertory Theatre production o f A human beings and of the world.” R aisin in the S un runs through Feb. 20 at the What is well-known about Hansberry is Reiersgaard Theatre, 1516 S.W . Alder St. in Port- that Raisin m the Sun, which was written in land. For more information, call (503) 2 4 1'1278. 1959, was the first play by a black woman pro duced on Broadway. She was the first black R upert K innard is the Art Director for Just dramatist, fifth woman and the youngest Out and a childhood survivor o f 1950s Chicago. 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