About book Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers? (1994)
Bumped this to four stars for the raw talent of Hansberry, but overall what's presented is a 3.Les Blancs is a fascinating play, particularly considering how forward thinking it was (Hansberry was a true visionary, in my opinion). It's a story about the clash of civilizations, expectations, and family played out in the war for African independence. The themes are mostly deftly handled and deeply felt. However, unfortunately, Hansberry died before completing the play, and it was finished by her ex-husbsnd and literary executor Robert Nemiroff. And frankly, you can tell, and it's not in a good way. The dialogue in particular stands out compared to Raisin in the Sun, where it was a highlight, and overall I got an unfortunate sense that in places the message was lost. I don't think Nemiroff had the experience or ability to complete this tale, and it's a damn shame.The Drinking Gourd was a teleplay that was never produced due to fear and racism. It's an interesting tale of slavery and the South in direct and sharp opposition to the likes of Gone With The Wind - again Hansberry had incredible, visionary talent to tackle a wide range of issues. However, a TV script turns out to not read as well as a play. I still greatly enjoyed it, but definitely for the content and the promise it held, while the form left me a bit cold.What Use Are Flowers? is a little oddity - a short play about the aftermath of nuclear apocalypse. It's interesting, giving us a hermit discovering a small band of feral child survivors, and I love apocalyptic fiction, but overall it didn't amount to much. Hard to describe, but I guess I'd just say it didn't have the power of her other works.It really was a tragedy Hansberry died so young. She had such immense talent. Reading this collection, however, is probably for completists only. I'm glad I did, but as I said, it has more potential than promise.
I picked this up in order to read The Drinking Gourd, a screenplay created for television. Commissioned by one of the major networks to inaugurate a commemorative series to mark 100th anniversary of the Civil War, this was never produced, despite positive comments by TV execs. Politics seem to have gotten in the way... So I read this in my interest to understand that racial politics of the 1960s and to see a different type of source on my perpetual issue of teaching slavery through literature. (For the latter, I found this piece too reliant upon the playwright's notes for visual/audio supports to "tell" the story.) Still bold for its time.
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