Editing The Emperor Jones

{{Short description|1920 play by Eugene O'Neill}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = The Emperor Jones
| image      = Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920.jpg
| image_size =
| caption    = [[Charles Sidney Gilpin]] in ''The Emperor Jones'' in 1920
| writer     = [[Eugene O'Neill]]
| genre      = [[Tragedy]]
| setting    = A West Indian island not yet self-determined, but for the moment, an empire.
| subject    = A Black porter attains power in the West Indies by exploiting the superstitions and ignorance of an island's residents.
| premiere   = {{start date|1920|11|01}}
| place      = [[Provincetown Playhouse]]<br>[[New York City]], U.S.
| orig_lang  = English
}}
'''''The Emperor Jones''''' is a 1920 tragic play by American [[dramatist]] [[Eugene O'Neill]] that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured [[African American]] and a former [[Pullman porter]], who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, and later escapes to a small, backward Caribbean island where he sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the jungle in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him.

Originally called ''The Silver Bullet'',<ref name=EB>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Emperor-Jones-play-by-ONeill "The Emperor Jones"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> the play is one of O'Neill's major experimental works, mixing [[expressionism]] and [[Realism (dramatic arts)|realism]], and the use of an unreliable narrator and multiple points of view. It was also an oblique commentary on the [[U.S. occupation of Haiti]] after bloody rebellions there, an act of imperialism that was much condemned in O'Neill's radical political circles in New York.<ref>Renda, Mary (2001). ''Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 198–212. {{ISBN|0-8078-4938-3}}.</ref> ''The Emperor Jones'' draws on O'Neill's own hallucinatory experience hacking through the jungle while prospecting for gold in [[Honduras]] in 1909,<ref>[[Arthur Gelb|Gelb, Arthur]], and [[Barbara Gelb]], ''O'Neill - Life with Monte Cristo'', NY (2000), p. 261.</ref> as well as the brief, brutal presidency of [[Haiti]]'s [[Vilbrun Guillaume Sam]].<ref>{{Cite journal|jstor = 2929605|title = Black Power on Stage: Emperor Jones and King Christophe|journal = Yale French Studies|issue = 46|pages = 41–47|last1 = Cohn|first1 = Ruby|doi = 10.2307/2929605|year = 1971}}</ref>

''The Emperor Jones'' was O'Neill's first big box-office hit. It established him as a successful playwright, after he won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for Drama for his first play, the much less well-known ''[[Beyond the Horizon (play)|Beyond the Horizon]]'' (1920). ''The Emperor Jones'' was included in [[Burns Mantle]]'s ''The Best Plays of 1920–1921''.

==Synopsis==
[[File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-2.jpg|thumb|left|Brutus Jones, played by [[Charles Sidney Gilpin]], removes his shoes to facilitate his flight through the jungle in the original [[Provincetown Playhouse]] production of ''The Emperor Jones'' (1920)]]
''The Emperor Jones'' is about Brutus Jones, a Black American Pullman porter who escapes to an island in the West Indies. In two years, Jones makes himself "Emperor" of the place. A native tried to shoot Jones, but the gun misfired; thereupon Jones announced that he was protected by a charm and that only silver bullets could harm him.

When the play begins, he has been Emperor long enough to amass a fortune by imposing heavy taxes on the islanders and carrying on all sorts of large-scale corruption. Rebellion is brewing. The islanders are whipping up their courage to a fighting point by calling on the local gods and demons of the forest. From the deep of the jungle, the steady beat of a big drum sounded by them is heard, increasing its tempo towards the end of the play and showing the rebels' presence dreaded by the Emperor. It is the equivalent of the heart-beat which assumes a higher and higher pitch; while coming closer it denotes the premonition of approaching punishment and the climactic recoil of internal guilt of the hero; he wanders and falters in the jungle, present throughout the play with its primeval terror and blackness.

The play is virtually a monologue for its leading character, Jones, in a Shakespearean range from regal power to the depths of terror and insanity, comparable to [[King Lear|Lear]] or [[Macbeth (character)|Macbeth]]. Scenes 2 to 7 are from the point of view of Jones, and no other character speaks. The first and last scenes are essentially a framing device with a character named Smithers, a white trader who appears to be part of illegal activities. In the first scene, Smithers is told about the rebellion by an old woman, and then has a lengthy conversation with Jones. In the last scene, Smithers converses with Lem, the leader of the rebellion. Smithers has mixed feelings about Jones, though he generally has more respect for Jones than for the rebels. During the final scene, Jones is killed by a silver bullet, which was the only way that the rebels believed Jones could be killed, and the way in which Jones planned to kill himself if he was captured.

==Characters==
* Brutus Jones, Emperor
* Smithers, a Cockney Trader
* An Old Native Woman
* Lem, a Native Chief
* Soldiers, Adherents of Lem

The Little Formless Fears; Jeff; The Negro Convicts; The Prison Guard; The Planters; The Auctioneer; The Slaves; The Congo Witch-Doctor; The Crocodile God

== Inspiration ==
The expansive personality and style of speech seen in Brutus Jones was modeled on Adam Scott, an African-American and close friend of O'Neill's. Scott tended bar at O'Neill's favorite tavern, at the rear of Holt's Grocery on Main Street, in his hometown of [[New London, Connecticut|New London]], [[Connecticut]].<ref name=":0">Gelb, ''O'Neill, Life with Monte Cristo'' (2000), p. 349</ref> In their biography of O'Neill, [[Arthur Gelb|Arthur]] and [[Barbara Gelb]] report that, <blockquote>Scott's imperious personality so impressed O'Neill that he later borrowed it for ''The Emperor Jones''. While the play was also derived from other sources, it was Scott's bravado, his superstition and his religious convictions that imbued the character of Brutus Jones.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>

==Productions==

===1920 premiere===
''The Emperor Jones'' was first staged on November 1, 1920, by the [[Provincetown Players]] at the [[Provincetown Playhouse]] in New York City.<ref>[http://www.eoneill.com/reviews/jones_frank.htm "'The Emperor Jones' by Eugene O’Neill]. Reviewed by Glenda Frank, Eoneill.com.</ref> [[Charles Sidney Gilpin]], a respected leading man from the all-black [[Harlem Renaissance theater companies|Lafayette Players]] of [[Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)|Harlem]], was the first actor to play the role of Brutus Jones on stage. There was some conflict over Gilpin's tendency to change O'Neill's use of the word "nigger" to Negro and colored during the play. This production was O'Neill's first real smash hit. The Players' small theater was too small to cope with audience demand for tickets, and the play was transferred to another theater. It ran for 204 performances and was hugely popular, touring in the States with this cast for the next two years.
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-5.jpg|Brutus Jones (Charles S. Gilpin, left) at a slave auction (Scene 5)
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-3.jpg|Under the spell of hallucination, Jones fires at the wraiths of an auctioneer and a Southern planter (Scene 5)
File:Gilpin-The-Emperor-Jones-1920-4.jpg|Jones (right) wastes one of his precious bullets on the apparition of a witch doctor (Scene 7)
</gallery>

===1925 revival===
Although Gilpin continued to perform the role of Brutus Jones in the US tour that followed the Broadway closing of the play, he eventually had a falling out with O'Neill. Gilpin wanted O'Neill to remove the word "nigger," which occurred frequently in the play, but the playwright felt its use was consistent with his dramatic intentions. Further, O'Neill defended the language as consistent with the behavior and speech of Adam Scott, the character's inspiration.<ref>Gelb, ''O'Neill, Life with Monte Cristo'' (2000), pp. 349–350.</ref> When they could not come to a reconciliation, O'Neill replaced Gilpin with the young and then unknown [[Paul Robeson]], who previously had only performed on the concert stage. Robeson starred in the title role in the 1925 New York revival (28 performances) and later in the London production.

Robeson starred in the summer production in 1941 at the Ivoryton Playhouse, Ivoryton, Ct.

===1926 revival===
The show was again revived in 1926 at the Mayfair Theatre in Manhattan, with Gilpin again starring as Jones and also co-directing the show with [[James Light (director)|James Light]]. The production, which ran for 61 performances, is noted for the acting debut of a young [[Moss Hart]] as Smithers.

===Federal Theatre Project===
[[File:Poster-The-Emperor-Jones-Marionettes-1937.jpg|thumb|Poster for a 1937 [[Federal Theater Project]] production of ''The Emperor Jones'']]
The [[Federal Theatre Project]] of the [[Works Progress Administration]] launched several productions of the play in cities across the United States, including a production with marionettes in [[Los Angeles]] in 1938.<ref>{{cite web | title=Federal Theatre (Memory) | work=American Treasures of the Library of Congress | url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm017.html | publisher=Library of Congress | year=2008 | access-date=February 16, 2009}}</ref>

===Recent productions===
In 1980 [[Richard Negri]] directed a production at the [[Royal Exchange, Manchester]] with [[Pete Postlethwaite]] and Albie Woodington.

[[The Wooster Group]] started to develop a production of the play in 1992 through a series of [[Work in process|work in progress]] showings. The finished piece opened in 1993 at [[Performing Garage|The Performing Garage]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/theater/a-quiet-soho-troupe-makes-a-raid-uptown.html|title=A Quiet SoHo Troupe Makes a Raid Uptown|last=Shewey|first=Don|date=1997-03-30|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-10-28|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> As part of its [[Postdramatic theatre|postdramatic]] aesthetics, this staging was notable for having an actor play the part of Jones who was female, white, and performed in blackface ([[Kate Valk]]). Blackface had been a suggestion for the original production, which O'Neill vetoed.

In 2005 [[Thea Sharrock]] directed the play, with [[Paterson Joseph]] in the title role, for the [[Bush Theatre]] in London.  The audience looked down into a sand-filled pit.  The claustrophic effect was admired by [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/aug/29/theatre1|title=The Emperor Jones|last=Billington|first=Michael|date=29 August 2007|website=The Guardian}}</ref> among others.  The production transferred to the Olivier auditorium at [[Royal National Theatre|The National Theatre]], London, in 2007.

New York's [[Irish Repertory Theatre]] staged a 2009 revival, which received positive reviews. [[John Douglas Thompson]] portrayed Jones.

==Adaptations==
{{main|The Emperor Jones (1933 film)||The Emperor Jones (1953 TV play)|The Emperor Jones (1955 film)}}

The play was adapted for a 1933 [[The Emperor Jones (1933 film)|feature film]] starring [[Paul Robeson]] and directed by [[Dudley Murphy]], an avant-garde filmmaker of O'Neill's [[Greenwich Village]] circle who pursued the reluctant playwright for a decade before getting the rights from him.

[[Louis Gruenberg]] wrote [[The Emperor Jones (opera)|an opera based on the play]], which was premiered at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] in New York City in 1933. Baritone [[Lawrence Tibbett]] sang the title role, performing in [[blackface]]. Paul Robeson's 1936 film ''[[Song of Freedom]]'' features a scene from the opera with Robeson singing the role of Jones. This has sometimes resulted in a confusion that the 1933 film of O'Neill's play is a film of the opera.

In the UK, [[BBC Television]] produced an adaptation in 1938, starring [[Robert Adams (actor)|Robert Adams]], and [[The Emperor Jones (1953 TV film)|another in 1953]], starring [[Gordon Heath]].

Several revivals were made in the 1950s when Robeson himself was blacklisted, denied his passport by the State Department and his films — including the 1933 film — recordings and performances were banned in the United States; these new productions were implicitly in defiance of the persecution and suppression of this great star by [[McCarthyism]] and the [[FBI]] from 1950 until 1958, and part of a worldwide effort of artists to lift the ban.

First, the legendary New York actor [[Ossie Davis]] starred in a [[The Emperor Jones (1955 film)|television adaptation]] for the ''[[Kraft Television Theatre]]'' in 1955 — this at a time when black faces were rarely seen on American television sets.

In 1956 [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]] wrote a ballet based on the play that was commissioned by The Empire Music Festival of New York, and danced by [[José Limón]]'s company, most of them in [[blackface]] — Limón himself a revered teacher at [[Juilliard School|Juilliard]] and breakthrough performer of color.

A live British television production by [[ABC Weekend Television|ABC Television]] for the first season of its ''[[Armchair Theatre]]'' series was seen on UK television on March 30, 1958.<ref>Laura Pearson, [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/534606/index.html "''Emperor Jones'' (1958)"], BFI Screenonline.</ref> It features African-American singer [[Kenneth Spencer (singer)|Kenneth Spencer]], and was directed by the Canadian director [[Ted Kotcheff]] and adapted by the American "beat" novelist  [[Terry Southern]] in his first screenwriting job. Unlike other British television versions, it still exists, and has been released on DVD.

It was [[The Emperor Jones (1960 TV play)|adapted for Australian television in 1960]].

An experimental video by Christopher Kondek and [[Elizabeth LeCompte]] showcases the production of the play by the New York-based performance troupe [[The Wooster Group]], starring [[Kate Valk]] and [[Willem Dafoe]].

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Eugene |title=The Emperor Jones |location=New York |publisher=Random House |year=1920 | oclc=29238831 | url=http://www.eoneill.com/texts/jones/contents.htm }}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|The Emperor Jones|''The Emperor Jones''}}
* {{wikisource-inline|The Emperor Jones|''The Emperor Jones''|single=true}}
* {{IBDB show|3325}} (Broadway Productions)
* {{IBDB title|8338}} (Opening night credits)
*[http://www.eoneill.com/library/contour/amateursend/jones.htm Discussion of ''Emperor Jones''] from Travus Bogard's book ''Contour in Time'', on O'Neill.
*[https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_45-11-11_ep010-Emperor_Jones_-_Where_the_Cross_Is_Made.mp3 1945 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation] at [[Internet Archive]]

{{Eugene O'Neill}}
{{Armchair Theatre}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emperor Jones, The}}
[[Category:Plays by Eugene O'Neill]]
[[Category:1920 plays]]
[[Category:All-Black cast Broadway shows]]
[[Category:Expressionist plays]]
[[Category:American plays adapted into films]]
[[Category:Tragedy plays]]