The Emperor Jones is a play written by Eugene O'Neill and first produced in New York City in 1920. It tells the story of a black American man named Brutus Jones who, after killing another black man in a dice game, escapes jail and goes to a small Caribbean island. It is notable in O'Neill's broader canon for diverging from realism and employing more expressionistic literary modes, and also makes some broader national political statements, particularly about the U.S. occupation of Haiti.
The play's first production took place at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village. Charles Sidney Gilpin starred in the leading role. Gilpin came from the all-black Lafayette Players in Harlem, and while he was met with acclaim in the production, ran into some disagreements with O'Neill, particularly over O'Neill's use of the n-word in the script. After touring with the production for a number of years, Gilpin left the production over the dispute. Paul Robeson took over the role on tour, and then performed in the 1925 revival, and in a production in London. The play was turned into a film in 1933, starring Paul Robeson.
The play has been revived and adapted many times. The Wooster Group staged a production in 2007 with Kate Valk, a white female actress, playing the title role in blackface, a theatrical device that O'Neill had not desired. In 1933, the play was turned into an opera, which premiered at the Metrapolitan Opera, starring Lawrence Tibbett, who wore blackface.
