Weston production delivers intense drama beautifully
Toolbox
By JIM LOWE Staff Writer - Published: August 30, 2009
WESTON – "A Raisin in the Sun," Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 drama, was a timely look at the plight of an African-American family in the ghetto. But it applies and resonates for anyone, any time and anywhere.
The Weston Playhouse production tells the story both poignantly and beautifully in some of the most powerful theater found on a Vermont stage.
After the run in Weston, the production will tour New England.
Although "A Raisin in the Sun" is an intense drama, it is full of humor and intimate warmth.
Lena Younger, now a widow, is matriarch of a family that includes a daughter and a son, with his wife and young son. They all live in a cramped Chicago tenement where they struggle to survive and maintain their dignity.
A life insurance check for $10,000 proves an incendiary device that tests the dignity and mettle of every member of the family.
The daughter, Beneatha, a college student, needs money to go to medical school. Lena and Ruth, her daughter-in-law, want a home.
The son, Walter Lee, aggressively seeks the money to build a future for himself and his family. Presently a chauffeur, a position he considers lowly, Walter Lee wants to be an entrepreneur joining his buddies down at the bar in a "deal." It is the headstrong Walter Lee who lights the match.
There are many themes and subplots, but they all help explain the characters' plight. But what gives this play its power is its brutal honesty about people and life.
There are no good people or bad people here, they're just people. And, though this certainly includes issues about civil rights, these people and their issues could be about any race or socio-economic group.
Weston's tough and honest production, directed by Malcolm Ewen, one of the theater's three producing directors, was an intense and intensely rewarding experience at Thursday's preview performance. The cast proved convincing and largely excellent.
Tonye Patano delivered a powerful but tender performance as the troubled matriarch Lena, at once sure of herself, yet always questioning herself.
Wendell Franklin was terribly real as the self-defeating Walter Lee, successfully combining his self-centeredness with an all-but-buried tenderness for his family.
He was matched by Chantal Jean-Pierre's Ruth, who is troubled but feels responsible for keeping the family functioning.
Coy Stewart was quite real as their son, Travis.
Erica Peeples was charming but realistically adolescent as Beneatha, idealistic until it is tested.
Stephen Tyrone Williams' George Murchison, one of Beneatha's suitors, the rich one, proved appropriately chauvinistic and shallow, while Hubert Point-Du Jour was well cast though a bit flip as the Nigerian Joseph Asagai, the other suitor.
John Leonard Thompson was painfully real as Kari Lindner, a white who wants to keep the Youngers out of his neighborhood, as was Raphael Peacock as the duped Bobo.
Russell Metheney's realistic set, Barbara Bell's costumes and Travis McHale's successful lighting all contributed to the impoverished yet personal atmosphere.
Weston's "A Raisin in the Sun" is a powerful experience that feels very personal.
36