Dee, Davis celebrate sweet 'Raisin'

An evening with ruby dee and ossie davis

When: 6 tonight

Where: Harold Washington Library Center Auditorium, 400 S. State

Admission: Free

Call: (312) 747-1194

Whenever Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis enter a space, their distinctvoices--hers a breathy mezzo and his a raspy bass--engage anaudience. They command attention with their authoritativeness.

It's those sounds and crisp diction, wrapped around the profoundwords of playwright Lorraine Hansberry, that brought emotion anddepth to Ruth and Walter Lee Younger, the characters they portrayedin "A Raisin in the Sun."

The lifelong social activists lent power and strength to theoriginal Broadway production. Dee starred alongside Sidney Poitier,Claudia McNeil and Diana Sands in its opening performance at theEthel Barrymore Theater in March 1959 and later in the 1961 movie.Davis joined the stage cast in August 1959, replacing Poitier.

For both, the experience more than 40 years ago left an indeliblemark. They will talk about Hansberry, who died in 1965, and theplay's social relevance at 6 tonight at the Harold Washington LibraryCenter Auditorium, 400 S. State.

The presentation is part of the city's weeklong "One Book, OneChicago" critical analysis of the play and its modern-day relevance.Dee's film version will be shown at 6 tonight at the Woodson RegionalLibrary, 9525 S. Halsted; 10 a.m. Saturday at the Sulzer RegionalLibrary, 4455 N. Lincoln; 11 a.m. Saturday at the Harold WashingtonLibrary Center, and 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Music BoxTheater, 3733 N. Southport.

"This is a celebratory look," Davis says via telephone from NewYork. "'A Raisin in the Sun,' like 'Hamlet,' Moby-Dick or 'Death of aSalesman,' is a classic and it speaks eloquently to the humancondition. You keep going back to it because the soul is satisfied.It survives because it continually nourishes the people who come tosee it."

Hansberry's play, about a black South Side family striving for abetter life economically and socially, folds into its lines themes ofracial discrimination, feminism, racial identity and materialism. Theauthor grew up in Chicago and experienced discrimination when she andher family moved to 6140 S. Rhodes, near the University of Chicago.After they were threatened by a white mob, her father won an anti-segregation case based on a technicality. This incident inspired someof the themes in the piece.

Dee recalls vividly the first time she read Hansberry's play. "Iwas so excited I couldn't put it down," she says. "I expressed toLloyd Richards [the director] that I would be happy to do the part ofBeneatha. He said, 'I want you to do Ruth.' My disappointmentovertook me. We were silent for a long time.

"But I wanted to be a part of this play and this young author'sfirst outing on Broadway. Ruth is a difficult character. Ruth, thebackground character, becomes the conductor of the woes andambitions, the disappointments and expectations of the whole family.She is the cornerstone of the whole family. Things were happeningwith Mama. But Ruth was there; she didn't have any ambitions untilthe money came into the family. She was one of the pillars of sanityin the family. She was behind, I say, the ironing board of life,smoothing things out."

Walter Lee, on the other hand, was a complex character who wantedhis place in society and his household. "I was intrigued by[Hansberry's] description of Negro manhood at the time and thestruggle for power between Mama and Walter Lee," Davis says. "Thetitle suggests Walter Lee's dream was motivating him and, if societydidn't give him a place to express that dream, he might explode. ButLorraine gave him minimal ambition--he wanted to own a liquor store.There was this contradiction."

To understand the play's impact is to put it in context with thetimes, the couple says. The first play to break the color barrier onBroadway was 1944's "Anna Lucasta," which depicted common stereotypesabout blacks.

"But here comes a play that was serious," says Davis about "ARaisin in the Sun." "In 1959, there was still an era of segregationand stereotypical representation. But [the play] had a black directorand a black woman as a writer. How exciting and revolutionizing."

Dee notes that largely white audiences filled the production'stheater. "It was a growing-up experience for America," she says. "Ialways feel happy when a play can help white Americans take babysteps forward in human relations."