After being cast as Beneatha Younger in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of A Raisin in the Sun, Angela Mahlatjie wondered if an Australian audience would "get" the play, recalling a conversation she had with a US national.
"He was a black American man," Mahlatjie said.
"And he was very much like, I'm very interested to see if they will get it. And I said, I am interested to see if they will get it too, because it is quite subtle, but very poignant.
"And I think that it's a mirror. In Australia, racism is very subtle, but it is very real."
A Raisin in the Sun was first performed on Broadway in 1959. It's about a family that is just getting by, living in a rundown apartment on the South Side of Chicago.
The story centres on a $10,000 life insurance cheque the family's matriarch Lena Younger (Gayle Samuels) is awaiting after the death of her husband. Lena ends up using some of the money to put a down payment on a house in a nicer neighbourhood – but that neighbourhood is also predominantly white.
Mahlatjie said playing Lena's daughter had been the highlight of her career.
"I hadn't read a script, a play anyway, that was so specifically written for an experience that I understood," she said.
Her character Beneatha wants more, is striving for more, and is determined to achieve her dream of being a doctor.
"It really resonated because in my family, I'm the only actor," Mahlatjie said.
"Especially from where I'm from, which is Botswana, which is in Southern Africa, if you're not making money, don't do it.
"And acting is one of those things where you really have to love it and be passionate and be resilient enough to chase it until you're successful, whatever that means for you.
"And so, I feel like Beneatha and I share that kind of passion and zest for the thing that we want to do regardless of what people say."
Mahlatjie said she and her character also chose to do certain things in a certain way because they were young, black women.
She said black people in Australia were quite often stereotyped and work was often harder to get.
"Even now, being black is hard. It's a bit of a speed hump, it's hard to get over," she said.
"In 2020, during COVID, a lot was highlighted in terms of racism in Australia, mainly for people of colour, black people.
"And I think that this play really speaks to how marginalised we still are … there's all these things that still exist today in Australia.
"And I think the play speaks to them in a very political way."
She said the play was universal in the way it depicted family, which was something anyone could relate to.
"Because everyone has a family. Everyone can relate to family dynamics. But then if you add this thing of being the 'other", and how that affects your family, and how that affects your family's potential to follow their passions and follow their dreams, I think there's a nuance to that that could be informative for people to see."
Nancy Denis isn't in the play for long. But she steals the show with an impactful performance as the Younger's South Side neighbour Mrs Johnson.
"She's the voice of the community around them," Denis said of her character.
"Mrs Johnson represents some of the fears that the Younger family definitely have, but don't necessarily voice."
She said the neighbourhood the family wanted to move to presented some challenges, but also posed a real danger.
"At the time, in the 1950s, there were a lot of bombing attacks on black people in white neighbourhoods. Basically, white people taking it upon themselves to eradicate any kind of form of integration with black people at the time."
She said this concept wasn't foreign in 2022.
Interestingly, Mrs Johnson is cut out of the 1961 film starring Sidney Poitier. But Denis said she's a key character who provides a lift.
"Lorraine [Hansberry] wrote this play in its entirety, it is a full play," Denis said.
"And Mrs Johnson's character, I think, is an important part, because even though the words coming out of her mouth are awful, her energy sets you up for what's about to happen."
It's the first time A Raisin in the Sun has been produced in Australia and it's directed by internationally acclaimed playwright, artistic director and Noonuccal Nuugi man from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), Wesley Enoch.
Enoch said in a director's note that: "Plays are a window into our times. They record the hopes and aspirations of the era in which they are written and then again when they are produced."
Denis said there were many reasons people should go and watch it.
"It's just an extraordinary play," she said.
"[Hansberry has] written such full, entire characters, she doesn't miss a beat.
"And it is such a pleasure to … have her words come out of my mouth, and to hopefully do it justice and honour."
The Sydney Theatre Company's production of A Raisin in the Sun will play till October 15.
