A great play, A Raisin in the Sun, at the Huntington

A Raisin in the Sun, at the Huntington Theater, Saturday, March 23, 2013. By Lorraine Hansberry. Directed by Liesl Tommy. Here is a good review by the Boston Globe's Don Aucoin, with which I largely agree.

I think most theater lovers know the story of the Younger family, who are poor and live in a claustrophobic flat in Chicago's black neighborhoods, how the mother comes into insurance money from the death of her husband, how the erratic son Walter blows a good chunk of the money on a liquor store scheme when one of the partners absconds with the money, and how they're move to buy a house in a white neighborhood is accomplished over the objections of the white neighbors, who are willing to pay the Youngers to not move there. There are a lot of stories going on in this play. It's a flood of stories. And that's not bad. Better always to have too much going on than too little. For me, the story of Walter (played by LeRoy McClain), his weakness, and his ultimate resolution and redemption, is the one that stood out.

The Huntington, and this cast, did a great job. It's a long, almost three hour play, but it passes quickly. I wondered about LeRoy McClain, the actor who plays Walter. The role of Walter seems almost too much for one actor. There's too much happening to Walter in three hours. McClain pulled it off, inhabiting a man who jumps from elation to near insanity. Physically and mentally, how does he do it night after night?

I liked everybody. The smart daughter Beneatha, was charming, funny, and combative (I assumed this was Lorraine Hansberry herself; was saddened to recall that she died of cancer at 34). The mother Lena was tough and in charge, and described nicely. There are plenty of Greek children who would recognize a Greek mother in her. Ruth Younger is at the end of her rope.

The rotating stage, revealing different rooms of the small Younger flat as it rotates, seemed like a hell of a lot of engineering trouble for not much theatrical effect. The sex scene between Walter and Ruth Younger was too bizarrely graphic -- it was if the director was inexplicably trying to revoke the dignity of these two people. Seeing the ghost of the deceased Mr. Younger on stage, in the background, distracted me a little in the beginning, but I got over it, and it did set up the powerful scene towards the end of the play when the older man puts his hand on Walter's shoulder, and Walter finds the strength to refuse the money of the white neighbors.