A Raisin in the Sun

Since A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959, it has been revived numerous times all over the world. The play has been adapted into multiple films, translations, and even a Tony Award–winning 1973 Broadway musical. The play concerns a very specific demographic during a particular moment in American history. Why do you think the text speaks to so many different types of audiences? What about the play can be universalized?

Consider the Langston Hughes poem “Harlem,” from which Lorraine Hansberry takes the name of the play. How does the play illustrate the ideas in the poem? What is the message of the poem? How does this translate in the play? Who or what is the “raisin in the sun”?

The end of the play leaves the future of the characters open. For instance, the audience never learns whether Beneatha goes to Africa. Two playwrights, Bruce Norris—with his 2010 play Clybourne Park—and Kwame Kwei-Armah—with the 2013 play Beneatha’s Place—wrote works that speculated upon what may have happened next for the characters. How would you continue their stories? What do you think happens next?