A review by ianbanks
Plays on a Human Theme: Marty/A Raisin in the Sun/Inherit the Wind by Cy Groves, Jerome Lawrence, Lorraine Hansberry

5.0

An interesting collection that looks at three scripts with themes about people and how they try and fit in with the world when they are clearly square pegs.

I've read Marty before and it's aged extremely well: the story of an ordinary guy who's remained single into his 30s and how he meets someone who doesn't fit his expectations but whom he still finds himself falling for anyway is astonishingly, depressingly relevant to our world, 50+ years after being first broadcast.

A Raisin In The Sun is also an amazingly current (ha!) play. It's the story of a black family who have the opportunity to move upward socially. Of course it isn't easy, but it's another story that could also happen in today's world. It's full of some great characters and situations.

Finally, , the only historical/ period piece in this collection, is based upon a factual incident: the Scopes Monkey Trial. Like all good atheists, I know a bit about this and it's a fairly accurate retelling, though overly dramatised for effect, but not by much. It could also be ripped from today's headlines. It's a great piece, though overly stagy in places - like the character of Hornbeck speaking in blank verse like some kind of Chorus, or Drummond's final action - and it doesn't try to come to sort of definitive statement about the issue, preferring to leave the audience with doubts and questions.

I wasn't expecting to find these as good as they were: a lot of scripts with "messages" age very quickly as society finds ways of overcoming or superseding the issues but, as noted, these are fairly universal and easily adaptable themes.