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The Blacks (play)

1958 play written by Jean Genet

Field	Value
name	The Blacks
writer	Jean Genet
premiere
place	Théâtre de Lutèce
Paris, France
orig_lang	French

Paris, France The Blacks () is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin at the Théâtre de Lutèce in Paris, France, which opened on 28 October 1959. TOC

Synopsis

A review of the Theatre Royal Stratford East production (2007) states:

Using the framework of a play within a play, it exposes racial prejudice and stereotypes while exploring black identity. As a troupe of black actors re-enact the trial and ensuing murder of a white woman before a kangaroo court, the Queen and her entourage look on and comment. Five of the 13 black actors don [Whiteface (performance)

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 in 1960, The Blacks was the second of Genet's plays to be staged in New York. The production was the longest-running Off-Broadway non-musical of the decade. This 1961 New York production opened on 4 May at the St. Mark's Playhouse and ran for 1,408 performances. It was directed by Gene Frankel, with sets by Kim E. Swados, music by Charles Gross, and costumes and masks by Patricia Zipprodt. The original cast featured James Earl Jones as Deodatus, Roscoe Lee Browne as Archibald, Louis Gossett Jr., as Edgar Alas Newport News, Cicely Tyson as Stephanie, Godfrey Cambridge as Diouf, Jay J. Riley as the Governor, Cynthia Belgrave as Adelaide Bobo, Ethel Ayler as Augusta Snow, Helen Martin as Felicity Trollop Pardon, Raymond St. Jacques as Judge, Maya Angelou as the White Queen and Charles Gordone as the burglar.

Shi Mei Li directed the play in 1983.

References

Bray, Elisa. (18 October 2007). "'The Blacks': Genet's contentious play returns". [[The Independent]].
Genet (1958, 4).
[[Edmund White. White, Edmund]] (1993), ''Genet'', p. 486.
[http://www.iobdb.com/Production/2117 "The Balcony"], Lortel Foundations. Internet Off-Broadway Database.
"The Blacks at St. Mark's Playhouse 1961-1964".
Bradby (1998, 417).

Info: Wikipedia Source

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1959-plays african-and-black-nationalism off-broadway-plays plays-by-jean-genet postcolonialism

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