Stage review: Timeless 'Raisin' still satisfies
Germantown production works well on many levels
Fifty years after it premiered on Broadway, "A Raisin in the Sun" holds up especially well.
The progress made in civil rights in half a century are enormous, but this tale of a family doing the best it can to make things better carries a timeless quality.
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Andrea Cash portrays Ruth and Jarron Robins is Walter Lee in Germantown Community Theatre's production of "A Raisin in the Sun."
The Lorraine Hansberry drama, performed at Germantown Community Theatre, spotlights the African-American Younger family and its ambitions. Mama Lena is the matriarch who rules gently but firmly over her medical student daughter Beneatha, impulsive son Walter Lee and his wife, Ruth, and their son, Travis. They all want something better in life, including moving out of the sorry Chicago apartment they've put up with for years.
The opportunity comes in the form of an insurance check for $10,000 that Mama is receiving after the death of her husband. Each member of the family has a notion of how to spend that money -- Mama wants to move to a house, Beneatha needs funds to finish medical school and Walter Lee aches to quit his job as a chauffeur and start his own business.
The Germantown Community Theatre production works well on multiple levels. Director Reginald C. Brown's thoughtful touch keeps it moving along with the right balance of wit and drama.
The cast -- many of whom are first-timers at the theater -- is a strong ensemble with some terrific performances.
Precious J. Morris is strong as Mama trying to keep the family in check and Morgan Malone as Beneatha is sharp as the acerbic daughter. Jarron Robinson, channeling Sidney Poitier, deftly takes Walter Lee through his agonies of spirit, greed, ambition and maturity. And Andrea Cash as Ruth is amazing in her quiet intensity.
The set is designed exactly as it needs to be, and thanks again to Bill Short for getting it right.
This is a notable success for Brown and the theater.
It's also another interesting choice of dramas for the theater that explore cultures struggling with self and identity in a hostile or at least indifferent world. The recent production of "Last Night of Ballyhoo" smartly explored similar themes of Jewish families in the pre-World War II South.
"A Raisin in the Sun"
Runs through March 22 at Germantown Community Theatre, 3037 Forest Hill-Irene Road. Showtimes are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $15 -- $20. Call 754-2680.
