Original Stage Play, Original Screenplay, and the American Playhouse Presentation
The complete, original version of Hansberry's play includes several scenes with which most people are not familiar, for these were omitted from the original stage presentations of Raisin when it opened in 1959. Most of the cuts from the complete version were made because of time constraints.
For example, the entire scene with Mrs. Johnson was eliminated from the original stage presentation of Raisin. Another deletion from the complete version was the scene in which Beneatha has cut her hair and is wearing it in the "natural" style that she knows Asagai will admire.
This scene, although very important to Hansberry, was taken out because, just before the show opened, the actress playing the role of Beneatha had inadvertently been given a disastrous haircut, which everyone involved in the production of Raisin felt would have made a negative statement to the audience about Hansberry's true, positive feelings about the natural hairstyle. The dramatic change in Beneatha's hairstyle is shown in the complete version, the American Playhouse television presentation.
