''The Blacks'' (french: Les Nègres) is a play by the
French dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
Jean Genet
Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's ...
. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by
Roger Blin
Roger Blin (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, 22 March 1907 – Évecquemont, France, 21 January 1984) was a French actor and director. He staged world premieres of Samuel Beckett's '' Waiting for Godot'' in 1953 and ''Endgame'' in 1957.C. J. Ackerl ...
at the Théâtre de Lutèce in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, which opened on 28 October 1959.
__TOC__
Synopsis
A review of the
Theatre Royal Stratford East
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose ...
production (2007) states:
In Genet's oeuvre
In a prefatory note, Genet specifies the conditions under which he anticipates the play would be performed, revealing his characteristic concern with the politics and ritual of theatricality:
After ''
The Balcony
''The Balcony'' (french: Le Balcon) is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It is set in an unnamed city that is experiencing a revolutionary uprising in the streets; most of the action takes place in an upmarket brothel that functions as a ...
'', The Blacks was the second of Genet's plays to be staged in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The production was the longest-running
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
non-musical of the decade. This 1961 New York production opened on 4 May at the
St. Mark's Playhouse St. Mark's Playhouse at 133 Second Avenue in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City, was an Off-Off-Broadway theater notable for presenting the Negro Ensemble Company's production of '' The First Breeze of Summer'' by Leslie Lee, which pre ...
and ran for 1,408 performances. It was directed by
Gene Frankel
Eugene V. Frankel (December 23, 1919 – April 20, 2005) was an American actor, theater director, and acting teacher especially notable in the founding of the off-Broadway scene. Frankel served in the Army during World War II in entertainment and ...
, with sets by
Kim E. Swados, music by
Charles Gross
Charles Gross (born 13 May 1934) is an American film and TV composer, living in New York City.
Gross, born in Boston, Massachusetts, was educated at Harvard University (BA), the New England Conservatory and Mills College (teaching fellowship), a ...
, and costumes and masks by
Patricia Zipprodt
Patricia Zipprodt (February 24, 1925 – July 17, 1999) was an American costume designer. She was known for her technique of painting fabrics and thoroughly researching a project's subject matter, especially when it was a period piece. During a c ...
. The original cast featured
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...
as Deodatus,
Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and director. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's ...
as Archibald,
Louis Gossett Jr.
Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (born May 27, 1936) is an American actor. Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, He had his stage debut at the age of 17, in a school production of '' You Can't Take It with You.'' Shortly after he successfully ...
, as Edgar Alas Newport News,
Cicely Tyson
Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson recei ...
as Stephanie,
Godfrey Cambridge
Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge (February 26, 1933 – November 29, 1976) was an American stand-up comic and actor. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by ''Time'' in 1965 as "one of the country's foremost celeb ...
as Diouf, Jay J. Riley as the Governor, Cynthia Belgrave as Adelaide Bobo,
Ethel Ayler
Ethyl Spraggins Ayler (May 1, 1930 – November 18, 2018) was an American character actress with a career spanning over five decades.
Biography
Ayler was born in Whistler, Alabama and graduated from Fisk University.
In 1957, she made her ...
as Augusta Snow,
Helen Martin
Helen Dorothy Martin (July 23, 1909 – March 25, 2000) was an American actress of stage and television. Martin's career spanned over 60 years, appearing first on stage and later in film and television. Martin is best known for her roles as Wand ...
as Felicity Trollop Pardon,
Raymond St. Jacques as Judge,
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and ...
as the White Queen and
Charles Gordone
Charles Edward Gordone (October 12, 1925 – November 16, 1995) was an American playwright, actor, director, and educator. He was the first African American to win the annual Pulitzer Prize for Drama and he devoted much of his professional life ...
as the burglar.
Shi Mei Li directed the play in 1983.
[Bradby (1998, 417).]
See also
*
Theater of the Absurd
The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style of ...
*
Whiteface (performance)
Whiteface is a type of performance in which a person wears theatrical makeup in order to make themselves look like a white person. The term is a reversal of the form of performance known as blackface, in which makeup was used by a performer to mak ...
*''
Les Blancs''
References
Further reading
*
Bradby, David. 1998. "Genet, Jean." In ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre.'' Ed. Martin Banham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 417. .
*
Genet, Jean. 1960. ''The Blacks:''. Trans. Bernard Frechtman. New York: Grove Press. .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blacks, The
1959 plays
African and Black nationalism
Plays by Jean Genet
Postcolonialism
Off-Broadway plays