The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is a complex, unexpected portrait of the early 1960s

The Portland Theater Scene says that The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a complex, unexpected portrait of the early 1960s, but notes that, “Perhaps even more moving than the story at hand, SIGN is a bittersweet reminder of all the other great American plays that might have been—had Lorraine Hansberry not died at 34.”

The play is a story about a man named Sidney, his pitfalls within his personal life, and his struggles within Bohemian culture. The play premiered October 15, 1964 and received mixed reviews. It encompasses themes including prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, homosexual slurs, sexuality, race, and suicide.

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. 

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