Colored Museum, The by George C. Wolfe: The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play

The landmark play A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from a Langston Hughes poem which poses the question What happens to a dream deferred?/ Does it dry up/ like a raisin in the sun? Focusing on a working-class African-American family in Chicago who save enough to purchase either a business in a black neighborhood or a house in a white neighborhood, the plays exposes issues of racism and gender as the women of the family make important decisions that push against both racial and gender lines. This volume discusses gender in the play, looking at how the female characters fight both racism and male chauvinism, how the play is dominated by strong female characters, and how characters resist the stereotype of the emasculating female.

Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.nbsp;nbsp;The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun." "The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.

In the 1950s, an African-American family on Chicago's south side is torn by different dreams for the future when they receive an insurance settlement: son Walter Lee wants to open a liquor store; daughter Beneatha wants to go to medical school; and the matriarch, Lena, wants to buy a home in a white suburb.