60s idealism with savage wit in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window: Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2014

David Stabler’s review for The Oregonian wonders about the risk of mounting Lorraine Hansberry’s play: a play very much of its time—60s idealism, fighting oppression, changing the system. Will a cynical modern audience find it quaint?

Stabler answers his own question, praising the play itself: What Hansberry did so well in A Raisin in the Sun—internalize the evils of society through her characters—she does here, too. . . But who knew she could be so funny? She finds plenty to poke fun at in the world of pinkos and bohemians. Racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, idealism —many of the “isms” of the time—get their due. . . . Stabler goes on to praise actors Ron Menzel and Sofie Jean Gomez.

Directed by Juliette Carillo, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opened at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on February 15 and will continue playing through July 3, 2014. OSF is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1935; their season runs Tuesday–Sunday February through October in three theatres: two indoor stages and a flagship outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre. When you visit you can see one or two plays or up to nine plays in one week. For information about OSF, visit www.osfashland.org.