The play “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” was written by Lorraine Hansberry. She also wrote the award winning play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
“Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, a play about a struggling Black family, which opened on Broadway to great success. Hansberry was the first Black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights. She died at 34 of pancreatic cancer.” – biography.com/authors-writers/lorraine-hansberry
The play “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” debuted on Broadway in 1964 just months before the playwright died . . . and the year I graduated from Clover Park High School in Lakewood . . . the year that my wife Peggy graduated from Kaiserslaughtern High School in Germany, and a year before my actress/director cousin graduated from Puyallup High School. So, you might assume that Sidney Brustein’s window might need a couple windows replaced or at least some cleaned up a bit.
World Premiere works frequently don’t arrive in fully finished form. Typically, Small Professional and Regional Theatres have taken up what used to serve playwrights as the “out of town tryout” by giving the playwright a first, second or even third production before the Broadway run. This is the time period a playwright can gauge the arc of play, economy of words contained in a character’s expression of need, audience response to the main issue in the play, and note when programs begin to shuffle as audience members begin to think about dinner. Sadly, Lorainne Hansberry’s death at a young age, denied this script that process. The play is too long. But the good news is Ms. Hansberry’s unparalleled gift is giving voice to those heroes and would be heroes who choose to fight their best fight for what they believe. We are grateful to The Williams Project for bringing forth Seattle’s first professional production of this play. Raisin in the Sun was a play that dealt with issues of integration in the 1960’s. A Sign in Sydney Brustein’s Window is a play that rewards the audience by showing us how far-reaching and broad in scope Ms. Hansberry’s empathy was for those who struggle.
Managing Director Wesley Fruge and director Ryan Guzzo Purcell were involved to make sure the message about learning to live and work with each other was delivered to today’s audience. Like the characters in her play, Lorraine Hansberry lived and worked with her contemporary playwrights as they all grappled with the 1960’s and a growing movement in socially conscious plays. Director Purcell mentioned the connection between James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry, “People who didn’t know us better would have thought we hated each other.” This happens all the time when we can see the prize and know the problems involved, but different roads are taken to reach the same place. When we all reach the same destination, we celebrate together and congratulate one another.
The lobby at The Erickson Theatre was buzzing with photographers, friends, relatives, and lots of regular people. Our review team had excellent seats, which were in the last row at the top of the audience. Where we sat gave us a great view of the entire stage as well as a good look at the reception the play got from the audience. Looking down it was also easy to distinguish seniors (those with white hair, and much younger and many more in their twenties and thirties or more).
From the top perch we could see the set laid out as wide or wider than the audience. It depicted a Greenwich Village apartment in New York City with a large window, which held a banner for people on the street and in other nearby apartments to see. Our audience saw the banner backwards looking through the banner itself promoting “mrofeR.”
The long production lets us see the characters mostly following the same road of questions, disbelief, joy, fear, and disappointment . . . and blame. It’s what makes us all human. To the credit of every actor in the play, each brought a moment of truth and clarity to their point of view. The audience can draw their own opinion about how the protagonist(s) occupy their time on stage. Even the most shallow-minded, self-seeking complainer is trying to make a difference in the world. And the actor makes us care by offering up that moment of honesty, vulnerability and courage.
Sidney has a client that he is helping to get elected to office, which follows the loss of Sidney’s earlier business. Will he find the magic, solve his marriage, get his client elected, keep the support of his friends and relatives, and be the success he always wanted to be?
Doing nothing creates doubt and fear, while action gives us confidence and courage. Sidney Brustein, nicely played by Max Rosenak, gives us hope, gives hope to his client, and perhaps not enough to his wife, but gives hope to his friends and to those who believe in him . . . Is it enough? That’s what makes the play interesting.
An-Lin Dauber did an excellent job in scenic and costume design. An-Lin (She/her) is a set and costume designer based in New York and Seattle.
While we have excellent local actors and actresses, it is also nice to see how other actors from around our country perform. Intiman theatre has both depending upon the productions.
For tickets – intiman.secure.force.com/ticket#/events/a0S2I000015CyefUAC
The play runs through February 25th.
