Post by marion on Nov 3, 2024 10:00:09 GMT
This has had absolutely amazing reviews so I was really looking forward to it, but in the end was rather disappointed. I found two of the actresses very hard to hear at times (that’s the second time at the Lyric, but both times in the same seat so maybe that’s the problem) and the play was OK but not amazing. However, it dates from 1959 and was dubbed the play that changed America’s theatre forever, so I imagine it had the same sort of effect as John Osborne and the kitchen sink dramas. It was the first play to be cast almost entirely with black characters, and one white character who is a racist. A family of five live in a rather dismal flat in Chicago and, when the father dies, the mother receives $10k life insurance. The son Walter, whom I loathed!, automatically assumes he will be given it for his business venture, a liquor store. The daughter Beneatha would like some to fund her medical studies. Walter’s wife Ruth would like security. Needless to say, after putting a deposit on a house in a white area, the mother gives Walter the money to split with his sister, but he puts it all into the business and his friend runs off with it. The white representative of the community tries to buy the family off. Beneatha is pursued by a Nigerian who feels she should not try to assimilate, and has a go at her about straightening her hair, which pissed me off no end. There is also a rant from the mother about abortion which annoyed me too. But it has a rather satisfactory ending for all of them.
Had I been able to hear it all I might have liked this better! Those playing Walter and Beneatha were clear as a bell. For me, it didn’t really say an awful lot that I didn’t already know about. That said, I did recently read a book called The Other Black Girl which does go into the question of assimilation so maybe that is a subject which still resonates today. The thing which got to me most was the sexism!
The audience was at least 75% black which is very unusual and I would say the great majority of those were young black women. Now from the reception at the end, they absolutely loved it. There was also a really sharp intake of breath when Walter calls his wife a coloured woman. But this was 1959 so I think they might expect some politically incorrect terminology. I would give 3 stars, not the 4 or 5 of the critics.
Had I been able to hear it all I might have liked this better! Those playing Walter and Beneatha were clear as a bell. For me, it didn’t really say an awful lot that I didn’t already know about. That said, I did recently read a book called The Other Black Girl which does go into the question of assimilation so maybe that is a subject which still resonates today. The thing which got to me most was the sexism!
The audience was at least 75% black which is very unusual and I would say the great majority of those were young black women. Now from the reception at the end, they absolutely loved it. There was also a really sharp intake of breath when Walter calls his wife a coloured woman. But this was 1959 so I think they might expect some politically incorrect terminology. I would give 3 stars, not the 4 or 5 of the critics.
Anymore to come?
