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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.>
About the author
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE 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, Young Vic)
Elmina's Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre),
Let There Be Love and
Seize the Day (Tricycle Theatre). He has also co-authored
Decolonizing the Theatre Space (2023) and written the play
Elmina's Kitchen.Oladipo 'Dipo' Agboluaje is a British-Nigerian playwright and academic, born in London and educated in Britain and Nigeria. He studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and later wrote a doctoral thesis at the Open University, UK, on West and South African drama. He won the Alfred Fagon prize for playwriting for his play
Iya-lle and is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, working in partnership with the University of East London, UK. He has written the commentary and notes to the Methuen Drama Student Edition of Inua Ellams's
Barber Shop Chronicles (Bloomsbury, 2021).
