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Like the dream deferred in Langston Hughes' poem that inspired its title, Court Theatre's latest production of "A Raisin in the Sun" simmers, sags, and occasionally explodes with raw intensity. Director Gabrielle Randel-Bent's contemporary vision crackles with urgency, even as it wrestles with the delicate balance between modern resonance and historical authenticity.

Andrew Boyce's masterful set design emerges as the production's crowning achievement. His deconstructed Chicago kitchenette apartment becomes a character itself – a cramped urban cage where privacy is as scarce as hope. The shared bathroom, visible just beyond the family's domain, serves as a constant reminder of the Youngers' station in life. Outside the city of Chicago pushing its way in threatening to devour the inhabitants in grit and grime.

The stellar ensemble breathes fierce life into Hansberry's beloved characters. Shanesia Davis anchors the production as family matriarch Lena Younger, while Brian Keys brings explosive energy to Walter Lee – though his visible tattoos create an unfortunate distraction that pulls us from the 1950s setting. Martasia Jones commands the stage as Beneatha, imbuing the aspiring doctor with a perfect blend of youthful idealism and sharp intellect. Her scenes of intellectual sparring sizzle with wit and passion, though the choice to smoke cigarettes in Mama's apartment strikes an implausible note in an otherwise masterful performance.

Kierra Bunch brings a quiet strength to Ruth Younger, crafting a deeply nuanced portrait of a woman stretched to her breaking point. Her scenes with Walter Lee pulse with complicated history – love and resentment, hope and exhaustion all tangled together. When she finally breaks down over her pregnancy, the moment is devastating in its restraint. Her joy is unbridled when she learns of the family's plan to buy a home.

Charles Andrew Gardner brings the perfect presence to George Murchison, making the most of his limited stage time. His polished demeanor and cutting wit provide the perfect foil for Beneatha's revolutionary spirit, while hints of vulnerability beneath his assured exterior add welcome complexity to what could have been a one-note character.

J. Nicole Brooks steals her scene as the nosy neighbor Mrs. Johnson, delivering gossip and judgment with such gleeful spite that you can't help but love to hate her. Her brief appearance provides crucial comic relief while underlining the community's complicated relationship with social mobility.

Julian Parker's Bobo's locs hairstyle is out of place for the time. It's distracting and makes it hard to believe Walter Lee would trust him with his dream of business ownership.

While the performances ground the production in emotional truth, Randel-Bent's modernizing choices create an intriguing tension between past and present, sometimes to the detriment of Hansberry's carefully crafted world.

Raquel Adorna's costume choices prove particularly puzzling: Joseph Asagai (Eliott Johnson) appears more Wall Street than West Africa when we first meet him in his Brooks Brothers-esque suit. At the same time, Karl Lindner (Vincent Teninty) inexplicably dons plumber's attire instead of the more historically and dramatically appropriate business suit of a "welcoming committee" representative. Young Travis (Jeremias Darville) sports an out-of-place cowboy ensemble, making him seem too old for both the outfit and the role as well as being an unlikely splurge for a family counting pennies.

Willow James' sound design walks a delicate tightrope between past and present, largely succeeding until a jarringly anachronistic moment when Walter Lee and Ruth dance to Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" – a choice that catapults us decades ahead of the play's setting.

“A Raisin in the Sun" hits different today than it did in 1959, but its truths cut just as deep. Sure, the Younger family's dream of owning a home in a white neighborhood might look different in 2025, but their story - fighting against systemic barriers, sacrificing for family, and refusing to let hope die - that's as real now as ever. The play nails something timeless about the American Dream: how it promises everything but keeps moving the goalposts for some folks. When Mama tends to that struggling plant, she's not just growing a flower. She's showing us how Black families keep pushing forward, generation after generation, despite the odds. Whether it's redlining in the '50s or today's housing discrimination Hansberry's message rings true: dreams don't come easy, but they're worth fighting for. That's why this play still packs theaters - it's not just history, it's tomorrow's headlines.

RECOMMENDED

When: Through March 9   *Extended through March 23rd

Where: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.

Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes

Tickets: $58 - $100.00 Student, Group and military discounts available

773-753-4472

www.Courttheatre.org

August Wilson is best known for a series of 10 plays known as the “Pittsburgh cycle” which chronicle the African American experience in America. For me, Wilson’s greater achievement is giving voice to African American men. Grown African American men over a certain age. Wilson allows his male characters to achieve something he didn’t achieve ...old age. Mr. Wilson died in 2005 at the relatively young age of 60. It is unfathomable what he would have written if given another 10 years. Sadly, too few playwrights write and value older Black men as Wilson did.

“Two Trains Running” takes place during the turbulent 60’s. 1969 to be exact. A time when for every action there is an equal and opposite action. Think Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. Think LBJ’s war on poverty and Black neighborhoods being burned to the ground. The 1960’s was a time when there were always two distinct trains of thought running at the same time. Wilson made the best of these times without making a boring historical drama. Let’s face it, Black folks had a hard time in the 60’s.

The setting is the Hill District diner of Memphis Lee, scheduled for demolition but not before the city pays the asking price. Memphis (A.C. Smith, in a performance he will be long remembered for) is a recently single man since his wife walked out on him. It doesn’t take long to figure out why. He treats his sole employee Riza like she is a maid. Memphis is a man who remembers what it was like to live in the south, he often mentions it. You would think that he would treat his employee better because of what he has gone through, but no, he subjugates her until you almost feel sorry. Almost.

Riza, (in a strong performance by Kierra Bunch) gives as well as she can take, and she takes a lot. Nothing bothers Riza she has seen it all. She has scarred her legs to deter the attention of men to no avail.  Although she wants the best casket for her friend, she refuses to view the body. Again, those two trains of thought at play.

Holloway (played with wisdom by Alfred Wilson) has some of the evening’s most profound lines as well as some of the funniest. There is a line about the Undertaker West burying people with the same suit that is hilarious. Alfred Wilson has a finely developed sense of humor, and it is put to excellent use here.

Ronald L. Connor cast as neighborhood predator/numbers runner Wolf is a stroke of genius. In a big ass afro it would be easy for Connor to slip into caricature, but he keeps this character real and recognizable. Despite constantly being told not to play numbers in the diner by Memphis. Memphis is one of his most reliable customers…again, two trains of thought. Wolf knowing how seemingly dangerous Sterling is has no problem selling him a gun, on credit no less.

Some of the most beautiful scenes in this play were done by Jerrod Haynes as Sterling and Joseph Primes as Hambone.  Jerrod is a scary Sterling on first meeting him. He has no problem telling anyone who would listen he just got out of the penitentiary. He’s the kind of guy that takes what he wants and is very sure of himself. He operates on no pretense. Joseph Primes has a face that tells one everything they need to know. His Hambone was aware. His Hambone was a fighter. Since I’ve seen the play several times before I concentrated on Hambone when he wasn’t talking. A million things were going thru his head, and they all came back to “I want my ham”. The story of the ham is two trains of thought, Lutz offered Hambone a chicken to paint his fence and if he did a really good job, Lutz said he would get a ham. Hambone felt he did a really good job, Lutz thought different.

Rounding out this coterie of characters is West, the Funeral Owner. In an unrecognizable role Cedric Young reminds us of how he got rich and how he’s gonna stay rich.

The period costumes were done by Christine Pascual…They were excellent. The costumes never got in the way of the story. These characters were real. A special shout to Christine for making sure Riza wasn’t in an afro. In 1969, women were hot-combing their hair and trying to look like Diana Ross and The Supremes. The set by Jack Magaw with the small details informed you that this is Pittsburgh.

Ron O.J. Parsons has done a marvelous job as usual. Proving he knows this language better than just about anyone in Chicago. There are performances here that will last forever “Two Trains Running” is a play one listens to. It stays with you a very long time.

Thru June 12^th at Court Theatre.

Booming thunder unleashed by a violent storm marks a scene change in King Hedley II, the sound and fury expressing the clash of deep emotional confrontations playing out as the stage goes to black.

Under the direction of Ron OJ Parson, Court Theatre gives us what is surely a definitive rendition of August Wilson’s 2000 play.

Wilson gives vivid voice to the life of his African American characters, showing them hemmed in and struggling for opportunity accorded readily to others. In King Hedley’s 1980s setting, amid trickle down economics, Americans saw greater divides between rich and poor, and rising mass incarceration. And against this backdrop, Wilson’s characters live life – with all its glory, and all its monumental tragedy, which abounds in the play.

In King Hedley II, the action takes place in 1985 in the backyards of two modest brick homes. Following five years in prison, Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.) returns to the home where his aunt raised him, optimistic, and aiming to rebuild his life. He plans to marry Tonya (Kierra Bunch). His aunt died while he was away, and his birth mother Ruby (actress Taylar) is now living in the house.

Hedley plants flower seeds, a perfect metaphor for his aspirations to reclaim his life, then struggles to stop others from trampling his young plants, and dragging him down with pessimism. His mother warns him the soil is too weak. Tonya, already a single mom, rebuffs Hedley’s overtures.

“I got to make it whatever way I can,” says Hedley (Kelvin Roston Jr.). “I look around and say 'Where's the barbed wire?”
“You could cut through barbed wire,” says Mister (Donald L. Conner). “But you can’t cut through not having a job.”

The ninth in Wilson’s ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle, each play takes place in that city, and each in a different decade. A Pulitzer finalist, it earned Viola Davis a Tony in its original Broadway run. I had the chance to see it in 2001 at Goodman Theatre, and barely understood what I watched then.

But at Court I threw down my program and leapt to my feet to cheer and applaud, like the rest of the audience, even before the final spotlight ended. It is that good, and hopefully we the people are better audiences for Wilson than 20 years ago. 

Though August's womenfolk are more guarded than optimistic, there is a hopefulness brought to Hedley by his buddy Mister, who works in a nail factory. Characteristically, Mister is hoping for a raise, that never materializes, even though business is booming. Hedley is in line to work on a demolition job for the City of Pittsburgh, but his employer (presumed to be African American) was denied the contract because the bid was too low, and the city doubted his capabilities.

Hedley and Mister devise side jobs, including re-selling refrigerators and, as opportunities narrow, plan a heist at a jewelry store. The plan and execution will remind you of  David Mamet's American Buffalo.

Into this intriguing setting come two even more powerful dramatis personae: the neighbor Stool Pigeon (Dexter Zollicoffer), a quirky person who is a hoarder, and delivers thundering prophecies drawn in ominous tones from long Bible passages. 

The other arrival is Elmore (A.C. Smith), hoping to recapture his lost love Ruby, and aiming to unburden himself of a secret that Ruby wanted both of them to take to her grave. (No spoiler here.) 

Smith tears up the stage with his larger than life Elmore. But then so does Zollicoffer as Stool Pigeon, a haunting character impossible to forget. And Taylar, Conner and Bunch all deliver remarkably good performances. And Roston gives us a complex, and nuanced portrait of Hedley.  

Wilson, who died in 2005, loads his plays with high-octane dialog. These can be challenging to deliver, or watch – with extra hurdles in understanding the overtones for white people like me. Parsons, working with this great cast, keeps each performance in balance with the others.

This is no small achievement when you realize that any of these characters could be the main protagonist in any other play. And indeed some recur in other works in the Pittsburgh Cycle. Act I of King Hedley II runs 80 minutes; after a 10 minute intermission Act II runs 70 minutes. You will be amazed at how quickly the time passes. Highly recommended for those who like great performances, staging, and a complex play. See King Hedley II through October 13 at Court Theatre in Chicago.

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