A Raisin in the Sun
$26.59
- Paperback
152 pages
- Release Date
21 August 2025
Summary
A revised Student Edition of Lorraine Hansberry’s iconic 1959 play - the first play produced on Broadway to be written by a Black woman.
Alongside the play text itself, this edition contains commentary and notes by Isaiah Wooden, which consider the play’s:
- socio-historical context (including the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the US)
- major themes (including African-American identity, property ownership, and emergent Black feminist politics)
- str…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781350470590 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1350470597 |
| Author: | Lorraine Hansberry, Isaiah Matthew Wooden |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Imprint: | Methuen Drama |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 152 |
| Edition: | 2nd |
| Release Date: | 21 August 2025 |
| Weight: | 145g |
| Dimensions: | 18mm x 128mm x 196mm |
| Series: | Student Editions |
Critics Review
When I was asked to review the play, I went back and read [this Edition’s] commentary and looked at the timeline in the book that contextualises the work. I would highly recommend this, to feel and understand that the play is testament to. * Drama and Theatre *
The power and craft of the writing make A Raisin in the Sun as moving today as it was then. Entrenched attitudes about race make the challenges its characters face still relevant. * Guardian *
Like all great works [A Raisin in the Sun] has proved itself incessantly timely … That the play is so prescient does not mean that its story is over. It means that, sadly, it never is. * New York Times *
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry was born in 1930 in Southside, Chicago. A Raisin in the Sun was her first play and opened in March 1959, making history by being the first play written by a female Black author to be staged on Broadway and winning the New York Critics’ Circle Award. Her career was cut tragically short by her death in 1965, aged 34.
Isaiah Matthew Wooden is Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College, US, and a director, dramaturg, and critic. His research and teaching focuses on 20th and 21st century African-American art, drama and performance. Wooden is the author of Reclaiming Time: Race, Temporality, and Black Expressive Culture (2025) and co-editor of August Wilson in Context (2025) and Tarell Alvin McCraney: Theater, Performance and Collaboration (2020).
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