The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
By Lorraine Hansberry
- Release Date: 2012-02-22
- Genre: Theater
Description
From the award-winning author of A Raisin in the Sun, comes one of the most electrifying classic masterpieces of the American theater: an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice.
"Rich and warm and funny... beautifully written.” —Los Angeles Times
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, along with A Raisin in the Sun, are milestones in the American theater, remarkable not only for their historical value but for their continued ability to engage the imagination and the heart.
“It is drama of such clarity that one may return to it again and again, and, I expect, emerge as deeply moved; and each time the more illumined…. Miss Hansberry, I am convinced, doesn’t know how to create a character who isn’t gloriously diverse, illuminatingly contradictory, heart-breakingly alive…. [A] personal odyssey of discovery, a confrontation with others in the process of which [Brustein] discovers himself.” —from the Foreword by John Braine
With an Introduction by Robert Nemiroff.
Reviews
Appealing to the Intellect
4By ewv1010The PBS American Masters documentary, of the legendary playwright and civil rights activist, Lorraine Hansberry, provided a longing to read THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW. Miss Hansberry, an intellect, a precocious talent for writing ahead of her years, captures, in a non-linear time capsule, Greenwich Village bohemia of artists and activists driven by ideals. I don’t recall watching a production of this play, but I couldn’t help thinking that I saw the opening scene in an acting class in the distant past or that it was a related memory of living on Bleecker Street during my youth, evocative of the longing of a commitment to ideals that are ethereal. The plot centers on the protagonist, Sidney Brustein, an intellectual, who is searching for his livelihood and winds up a publisher of a local newspaper that his left-wing buddies, Wally and Alton, push a political opinion for an election. Consequently, Sidney hangs a sign of reform on his window. Meanwhile, his wife, Iris, is a struggling actress, socially unconventional, befriends David, a gay playwright. However, she wants Sidney to be practical. Mavis, Iris’s sister, is a matchmaker type and shoves her traditional beliefs onto them. Their personalities clash in the dialogue, which is funny and meaty. The entrance of the prostitute Gloria, who is Iris and Mavis’s other sister pivots into an over-the-top turn of events that is left unresolved. Satisfyingly gripping that the climax is left up to the imagination. When the play opened in 1964 on Broadway Lorraine Hansberry at age 34 was suffering from pancreatic cancer and facing her mortality, while there were political turbulence and social unrest from the civil rights, women rights and gay rights movements. Her work conveyed through the characters is infused with conflict and meaning born from a personal pain that initiates a yearning to transform, and to care about your life when indifference shows up. The message revealed is to care, and a committed life is worth fighting for.
