''Native Son'' is a 1941 Broadway drama written by Paul Green and Richard Wright based on Wright's novel ''

Native Son ''Native Son'' (1940) is a novel written by the American author Richard Wright. It tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black youth living in utter poverty in a poor area on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s. While not apologizing ...

''. It was produced by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

and

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...

with Bern Bernard as associate producer and directed by Welles with

scenic design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

by John Morcom. It ran for 114 performances from March 24, 1941 to June 28, 1941 at the

St. James Theatre The St. James Theatre, originally Erlanger's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 246 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, it was designed by Warren and Wetmore in a neo-Georgian style a ...

. This is the last time Welles and Houseman, co-founders of the

Mercury Theatre The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also ...

, ever worked together.

Synopsis

Differences in plot

Richard Wright and Paul Green edited ''Native Sons plot to fit the time constraints of a play more easily. Certain parts are edited or cut completely. In the novel, the daughter of

Bigger Thomas Bigger Thomas is a fictional character in the novel ''Native Son'' (1940) by American author Richard Wright. In the original 1951 film, Bigger is played by Wright himself, while he is portrayed by Victor Love and Ashton Sanders in the 1986 fil ...

's employers, Mary, has a communist boyfriend, Jan, whom Bigger tries to blame for Mary's murder. Bigger even tries to collect ransom for Mary's supposedly missing body. He also becomes the Daltons' chauffeur only after a failed robbery attempt of a white man's store. In the drama, these details are erased. It becomes simpler and more objective—Bigger becomes the Daltons' chauffeur because of a social worker. He kills Mary by accident, as in the book, but is shortly found after a manhunt through Chicago. Green's original script called for Bigger to become devoutly religious at the end of the story, a theme not present in the novel; Wright helped Houseman remove this aspect and did not inform Green. Houseman believed that the religion twist went against Wright's viewpoint.

Production

Cast

Canada Lee Canada Lee (born Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata; March 3, 1907 – May 9, 1952) was an American professional boxer and then an actor who pioneered roles for African Americans. After careers as a jockey, boxer and musician, he became an actor ...

Frances Bavier Frances Elizabeth Bavier (December 14, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American stage and television actress. Originally from New York theatre, she worked in film and television from the 1950s until the 1970s. She is best known for her role o ...

as Peggy *

Everett Sloane Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television. Early life Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gers ...

as Britten *

Philip Bourneuf Philip Bourneuf (January 7, 1908 - March 23, 1979) was an American character actor who had a long stage career before appearing in films. Early years The son of engineer Ambrose Bourneuf and his wife, the former Josephine Comeau, Bourneuf was ...

as Buckley, District Attorney * Ray Collins as Paul Max, defense attorney * John Berry as a reporter *

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 Vera Thomas *

Evelyn Ellis Evelyn Ellis (February 2, 1894 – June 5, 1958) was an American character actress of stage and film. Devoting herself to the theatre, her film roles were few, but she appeared in films including ''The Joe Louis Story'' and ''The Lady from Sha ...

as Hannah Thomas *

Joseph Pevney Joseph Pevney (September 15, 1911 – May 18, 2008) was an American film and television director.

a as Jan Erlone * Erskine Sanford as Mr. Dalton * C. M. "Bootsie" Davis as Earnie Jones * Eileen Burns as Miss Emmett *

Anne Burr Anne Elizabeth Burr, later Anne Burr McDermott (June 10, 1918 - February 1, 2003), was an American actress, known especially for her work on stage and in radio. Early life Burr was born at Emerson Hospital in Boston, the daughter of Eugene Palme ...

as Mary Dalton * Nell Harrison as Mrs. Dalton * Jacqueline Ghant Andre as a neighbor * William Malone as Judge * Rena Mitchell as Clara * J. Flashe Riley as Jack * Wardell Saunders as Gus Mitchell * Rodester Timmons as G. H. Rankin * Lloyd Warren as Buddy Thomas Newspaper Men * Don Roberts * Stephen Roberts * Paul Stewart * George Zorn

Versions

The 1941 adaptation of the novel was revised in 1978 for the dedication of the Paul Green Theatre at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. The script by Green and Wright was adapted again in 2006 by

Cheryl West Cheryl L. West (born October 23, 1965, Chicago) is an American playwright. Life West holds a degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She worked as a social worker and taught before turning to playwriting. In 1990, she came to ...

for Seattle's Initman Theatre, however, she withdrew the right to perform it prior to the play's opening. An adaptation by director Kent Gash was presented in its stead. A later adaptation, not based on the Green-Wright script, was written by Nambi E. Kelley in 2016 for a joint production from

American Blues Theater American Blues Theater is a nonprofit, professional Equity theater company in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The ensemble currently has 30 members. History American Blues Theater was founded in 1985 as a company dedicated to new and classic ...

and Court Theatre in Chicago.

Critical reception

Critics greeted ''Native Son'''s 1941 premiere warmly, especially praising Canada Lee's turn as Bigger Thomas. Said Rosamond Gilder in ''Theatre and Arts,'' May 1941: " Much of what is important in the novel but is lost in the play -the profound subjective exposure of the Negro's unconscious motivations- is restored by the actor's performance. Bigger's smouldering resentment against the world as he has always known it; his unreflecting violence breaking out even more easily against the things he loves -his mother, his friends, his girl- than against the things he hates; his profound frustration stemming from the denial of his right to live;". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said it was "powerful" and "exciting". ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' called it "the strongest play of the season". Aljean Harmetz wrote in ''

'' stated "the play got excellent reviews and did good business."

References

External links

* *
archive

"Native Son: Best-Selling Novel is Turned into Tense Drama Strikingly Staged by Orson Welles"
''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'', April 7, 1941, pp. 94–96
Major Dramatic Works: ''Native Son'', 1940–1980
in the Paul Green Papers, #3693, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Actual Stage Timing, Court Room Scene
from the Mercury Theatre Production of ''Native Son'' (1941). ''Orson Welles on the Air, 1938–1946'',

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

. Orson Welles reads the role of Paul Max. {{DEFAULTSORT:Native Son (play) 1941 plays Broadway plays Plays set in Illinois Chicago in fiction Plays by Paul Green Orson Welles Plays based on novels Works by Richard Wright (author) Plays about race and ethnicity