Beneatha’s 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.