A RAISIN IN THE SUN to Play at Matthews Playhouse

Matthews Playhouse of the Performing Arts, in partnership with BNS Productions, will open its 30th Mainstage Season with Lorraine Hansberry’s seminal drama A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Dr. Corlis Hayes. Performances will run from September 19 through September 28, 2025, at the Matthews Community Center Theatre.

When A Raisin in the Sun was produced in 1959, Hansberry became the first Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Celebrated writer James Baldwin said that “never before in the entire history of the American theatre had so much of the truth of Black people’s lives been seen on the stage.”

Set on Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun follows the Younger family as they contend with inherited dreams, generational divides, and systemic injustice. When an insurance check arrives following the death of the family patriarch, each member must decide how to move forward—and whether their dreams can survive a harsh and often discriminatory world. Hansberry’s groundbreaking work remains one of the most influential American plays of the 20th century, rich in emotional depth, racial truth, and familial resilience.

A Raisin in the Sun broke down barriers on and off stage. Each of the Youngers, a Black family, has a different view of how to spend their father’s life insurance settlement to better the family. Will they open a business, send Beneatha to medical school, or move to an all-white suburb? Hansberry’s masterpiece seeks answers to the still-relevant questions posed in Langston Hughes’ poem Harlem:  What happens to a dream deferred?

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