Denzel Washington talks ‘A Raisin in the Sun’Posted by Wilson Morales
April 2, 2014
Opening this week at the Barrymore Theater is the revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’ starring two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington in the role of Walter Lee Younger, LaTanya Richardson Jackson as his mother Lena Younger, Sophie Okenedo as his wife, Ruth, and Anika Noni Rose as his sister Beneatha. Also cast in the play are Sean Patrick Thomas as Joseph Asagai, Jason Dirden plays George Murchison,and Stephen McKinley Henderson will play Bobo. Theater director David Cromer will play Karl Lindner.
Directing the play once again is Kenny Leon, who helmed the 2004 Broadway revival (with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan) as well as the ABC-TV movie in 2008.
Set on Chicago’s South Side, A Raisin in the Sun revolved around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee (Denzel Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins) and matriarch Lena, called Mama (LaTanya Richardson Jackson). When her deceased husband’s money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama.
For Mr. Washington, who won a Best Actor Tony Award for his performance in Leon’s play, ‘Fences,’ the role of Walter Lee Younger is a new challenge as well as an opportunity to step into the role that Sidney Poitier also played.
Mr. Washington briefly commented on the opportunity to do this legendary theater production.
What was the attraction to doing the play?
Denzel Washington: Kenny and I had great success with ‘Fences’ and we started talking after we finished that play about what to do next. We kicked around some ideas and he brought up ‘Raisin’ and I said, “You just did it. You want to do it again?” and he said yes. So we just decided on it together. It’s a great play. ‘Fences’ and ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ are two of the great American plays and two great roles and to get the opportunity to interpret them, I couldn’t pass it up.
With the play celebrating its 55th Anniversary this year, are you surprised that racism is still a factor in America now.
DW: You can’t legislate love. You can’t change 300 and 400 years of history through legislation, or in 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years.If you just think of pure physics, and you hold somebody back for a long and they’re pulling to get away, they’ll probably fall on their face first. It takes quite a while for them to stand up collectively as a people. There are many more opportunities now than there were in 1959, but there is still a lot of work to do.
What will ‘Raisin’ do for this generation?
DW: It depends. I don’t know. That’s a question for the people who come to see it. People always say, “What do you expect people to get from it?” and I say it depends what they bring to it. It’s not up to me to decide what they should get from it.
