I saw Denzel Washington in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 reprised drama “A Raisin in the Sun” a couple of weeks ago and he gave a phenomenal performance.
Reprising Sidney Poitier’s role, Denzel is stunning as the dreamer-schemer Walter Lee Younger, whose frustration throbs at the heart of an American classic that is as deeply humorous as it is affecting.
The story spins around an inheritance of $10,000, or about $100,000 today. The money is willed to Lena (a wonderful LaTanya Richardson Jackson- Samuel L. Jackson’s wife) by her late husband — and she plans to use it to move the whole family into a white suburb. But there are bumps along the way.
Jackson brings dignity, strength and laughter, while Anika Noni Rose charms with contagious exuberance as Beneatha, who wants to be a doctor and to learn more about her African heritage.
As Walter’s long-suffering wife, Ruth, played by the sublime Sophie Okonedo whose voice is thick, strong and horrible on the ears.
Washington’s performance registers the colors of joy, despair, fury and determination and I love him!
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