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,...
