In 1959, at a time squarely between the Supreme Court desegregation decision and the Civil Rights Act, a young black woman named Lorraine Hansberry burst upon the Broadway stage with “A Raisin in the Sun,” a landmark play about a struggling Chicago family’s hopes and dreams.

Back then, the most salient storyline concerned the widowed matriarch’s effort to buy their way into an all-white suburban neighborhood with newly acquired insurance money, and the pushback from a bigoted neighborhood representative. While that is still dramatically compelling, the intervening years and whatever progress we have made in racial matters have muted that part of Hansberry’s multi-pronged tale.

Nevertheless, Palm Beach Dramaworks and guest director Seret Scott are reviving “Raisin,” illuminating instead the family dynamics with new poignancy and universality. And in a fine ensemble cast, nearly all of whom are making their Dramaworks debuts, Ethan Henry stands out with a looming performance as Walter Lee, the grown son full of pipe dreams and short-sighted plans to achieve them.

Everyone in the Younger household — a fictional stand-in for Hansberry’s own family — has a dream. And most of them are tied to the $10,000 insurance check expected to arrive in the mail on Saturday. (Among the details that tell us “Raisin” was set in a far different time is the higher reliability of the postal service.)

Walter Lee wants to use the money to buy a liquor store with his less-than-honorable buddies, Willie and Bobo. His sister Beneatha needs tuition money to continue her medical studies. Grandma Lena wants the dough to go for a down payment on a house in distant Clybourne Park, so her family might enjoy a better life and she might have a garden for her bedraggled houseplant.

Naturally those dreams will be cast in jeopardy along the way and family members will be at odds with each other. Although there is plenty of desperation inside the Younger home, outside forces soon come into play too, represented by unctuous Karl Lindner. An emissary of Clybourne Park’s “improvement association,” he arrives eager to buy off the Youngers to stop their moving into his neighborhood.

With so many dreams deferred for lack of money, “A Raisin in the Sun” asks if the Youngers can afford to put their dignity on hold as well.

It all makes an involving stew, even if Hansberry’s writing now feels somewhat outmoded, overwritten and too reliant on coincidence and blatant symbolism. If “Raisin” has lost some of its social impact over the years, it still contains several powerful performance opportunities, which the cast at Palm Beach Dramaworks proves more than capable of delivering.

In addition to Henry’s fits of fury or his strangled cry of anguish when he relates how the money has slipped away, there is Pat Bowie as weary, exasperated, but brimming with dignity Lena. As Walter Lee’s long-suffering wife Ruth, Shirine Babb is a tower of strength and maturity, and Joniece Abbott Pratt is a striking contrast as Walter Lee’s sister, stringing along two boy friends, immersed in African culture, but touching in a monologue on why she wants to be a doctor.

Time has not been particularly kind to “A Raisin in the Sun,” but it remains significant for its historical place in American theater, and Dramaworks manages to breathe remarkable life into the work.