The final year students of National School of Drama presented “A Raisin in the Sun”, Himanshu Joshi’s Hindi translation of an American play, at Bahumukh auditorium recently. It focuses on an African-American family’s dream to lead a better life in a society marred by racial discrimination. Written by Lorraine Hansberry, the play is set in the 1950s America which witnessed civil rights movement by African-Americans, demanding social justice and to end “legalised racial segregation and discrimination in the United States.” The civil rights movement won a major victory when legally enforced public segregation was abolished. The play echoes the racial discrimination in a subtle way while deeply exploring the relationship between the members of the family headed by mother.
A graduate from the National School of Drama, Aniruddha Khutwad has directed the play. He has already produced plays for NSD in the past, displaying his sensitive and imaginative directorial approach to his productions. While watching “A Raisin in the Sun”, we discern his restraint artistry with realistic style that reveals the inner dilemmas of characters trying to create a better world for them to live with freedom from racial discrimination and miseries caused by economic deprivation.
As the family is the central point, the play is set in the house of an African-American. Their lives are hard and they live in a small apartment. Lena Younger, the mother, has lost her husband and the family receives a cheque for the payment of deceased father’s life insurance policy. With an eye on the insurance money, family members start dreaming about fulfilling their wishes. The matriarch of the family wants to buy a big house in a high society. Son Walter wants the money to be invested in a liquor store to earn huge profit with his friend as a business partner to get rid of his lowly position of a driver working for a white lady. Daughter Beneatha wants to spend the insurance money on her medical education to fulfil her plan to serve the African people. The son managed to get money from Mama and invests it on his dream project of doing business in liquor. Suddenly, the excitement is replaced by gloom and hopelessness as the son tells the family that his friend has cheated him and he has lost all the money he had invested. But Mama is hopeful. One day she tells her children that finally she has managed to buy a house which she and her late husband dreamt about.
Discovering identity
While the son and daughter are fighting to achieve their muffled dreams, Ruth, the daughter-in-law, works very hard. She works at her own home as well as at the house of a white family. Pregnant, she wants to abort foetus because the family has niggardly means and is not able to bring up another child as she has one school going son.
Mama’s daughter is a kind of a rebel who is discovering her identity in the cultural ethos of Africa. She has great passion to know about African history and is in love with a young African boy who inspires her to migrate to Africa and work for the people as a doctor. To fulfil her dream, she wants Mama's insurance money to study medicine to become a doctor. She has no faith in God while her mother is a deeply religious person. She has already rejected one of her lover whom she declared as a person with shallow belief.
Exploring racism
As the play moves forward, exploring the conflicting ambitions of the members of the family, the narrative takes a dramatic turn, exposing the deep-rooted racist outlook of the white Americans. A white gentleman visits the family. With his polite conversation and persuasive tone, he describes the high profile residents of the colony where Mama has purchased a house. He tells them about the harmonious relationship between the residents and then with a pause he says that the arrival of an African-American family in the midst of all-white colony will strike a discordant note. With a view to avoid this unwanted situation, he offers a huge amount much higher than the actual money the family has spent on the purchase. The family is in a dilemma.
The acting space in the Bahumukh auditorium is aptly used which depicts kitchen, sitting space in one room and two doors on the right which give the illusion that one door leads to the room of the married son and another door to the room in which mother and daughter live. For the school going kid there is no room to sleep. So he sleeps in the night on a sofa in the living room. There is a big door which opens to outside world where little action takes place which is conveyed through voices of the performers. This door is used for the exit and entry. On two sides the audiences occupy their seats. This imaginative device of placing properties creates the illusion of a cramped room and makes viewing intimate. The subtle lighting design by Souti Chakraborty creates an ambience that enables performers to express their troubled life.
The performers act with restraint with total concentration on the sense of the scene. Ashlesha Parshuram as Ruth Younger, the daughter in law, suffers silently. Her Ruth works hard and has little say in the family affairs. In fact, she truly lives her role, touching a chord with the audience. Aditi Arya as Lena Younger (Mama) creates a creditable portrait of a mother with strong will power who resists the pressure of the white man who gives her veiled threat, displaying her inner strength to hold her family together in the midst of crisis. Amitabh Shrivastava, a seasoned actor, as the white man, Snigdha Mondal as rebel daughter and Visharad Sharma, the lovely face of a child actor on the Delhi stage, as the school going kid, give performances of note.