A Raisin in the Sun

The first play to portray African American characters, themes, and conflicts in a natural and realistic manner on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the Year. Hansberry was the youngest playwright, the fifth woman, and the first African American writer to win the award.

Recently widowed, Lena Younger receives a life insurance check and plans to buy a house for her family, freeing them from the cramped tenement she shares with her two children, daughter-in-law and grandson in Chicago's south side. Her son, Walter, has other ideas for the money. In the struggle that ensues one dream will be fulfilled, another deferred. Will the family collapse or will they seize this opportunity to create a better life?

The Washington Post said A Raisin in the Sun is "one of a handful of great American plays" and The New York Times called it "a play that changed American theater forever." Don't miss this powerful and hopeful portrait of one family's quest for the American dream during the 1950s.