Beneathas Place

Alongside Bruce Norris''s Clybourne Park, Beneatha''s Place imagines a life for Lorraine Hansberry''s characters from A Raisin in the Sun beyond the confines of her play. Beneatha moves from 1950s America to Lagos with her Nigerian husband and then, in the second act, set in contemporary America, has become a college Dean of Social Sciences. Through this journey, Beneatha''s Place challenges today''s culture wars about colonial history and reckoning with the past.This Student Edition, with an introduction and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje, offers a lens on the play''s relationship to Hansberry''s 1959 play and Clybourne Park; unpacks its engagement with the post-independence politics in Africa and pan-Africanism; considers how other plays to have dealt with these themes; and compares responses to the US and UK productions.The edition includes original interviews with Kwame Kwei-Armah and actor Cherelle Skeete, who played the character of Beneatha in the UK premiere of the play.>

Préface
A Student Edition of this 2013 play, looking at its relationship to A Raisin in the Sun and Clybourne Park, its engagement of issues around race and gender and how it works in production.

Auteur

Kwame Kwei-Armah is British actor, playwright, director, singer and broadcaster. In 2018 he was made Artistic Director of the Young Vic Theatre, where he has directed Twelfth Night and Tree.

From 2011 to 2018 he was the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage where his directing credits include: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus, and Dance of the Holy Ghosts.

As a playwright his credits include Tree (Manchester International Festival, Young Vic), One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Beneatha's Place (Baltimore Center Stage) Elmina's Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre) Let There Be Love and Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre).

Kwame was an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse and has served on the boards of the National Theatre, Tricycle Theatre, and Theatre Communications Group. He is Chair of the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, was Chancellor of the University of the Arts London from 2010 to 2015, and in 2012 was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama. Oladipo Agboluaje was born in London. He was educated in the UK and in Nigeria. He has written many stage and radio plays. He is the winner of the 2009 Alfred Fagon Award and is a recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Award.

Résumé
Alongside Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, Beneatha's Place imagines a life for Lorraine Hansberry's characters from A Raisin in the Sun beyond the confines of her play. Beneatha moves from 1950s America to Lagos with her Nigerian husband and then, in the second act, set in contemporary America, has become a college Dean of Social Sciences. Through this journey, Beneatha's Place challenges today's culture wars about colonial history and reckoning with the past. This Student Edition, with an introduction and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje, offers a lens on the play's relationship to Hansberry's 1959 play and Clybourne Park; unpacks its engagement with the post-independence politics in Africa and pan-Africanism; considers how other plays to have dealt with these themes; and compares responses to the US and UK productions. The edition includes original interviews with Kwame Kwei-Armah and actor Cherelle Skeete, who played the character of Beneatha in the UK premiere of the play.

Contenu
Chronology Contexts - historical & political (1950s America, post-independence politics in Africa, pan-Africanism; Black Lives Matter) and literary (Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun; Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park; Wole Soyinka's A Dance of Forests; and The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo) Themes (gender; race; decolonization; critical race theory; culture wars) Language Structure Dramatic devices (lighting, sound, costume, scenography) Play in production (critical responses, comparison of Baltimore and London productions) Interviews (Kwame Kwei-Armah and Cherelle Skeete) BENEATHA'S PLACE Notes