Taboo is a play first performed in 1922, written by Mary Hoyt Wiborg

Mary Hoyt Wiborg

Mary Hoyt Wiborg was a New York City socialite. She wrote the play Taboo in 1922 that starred Paul Robeson.-Biography:...

.

It is set on a plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 in Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 before the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and in Africa. It opened on April 4, 1922 in the Sam Harris Theater, Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

. It starred Margaret Wycherly

Margaret Wycherly

Margaret Wycherly was an English stage and film actress.-Early life:Wycherly was born Margaret De Wolfe in London, England of American parents, Dr. and Mrs. J. L. De Wolfe. She was married to writer Bayard Veiller in 1901. They had a son, Anthony Veiller , who also became a writer...

, the only white member of the cast, Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...

, other African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 actors, and African students at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. An African dance was performed by C. Kamba Simango, a Mozambican

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

student at Columbia. This was one of Robeson's first stage opportunities and his performance was praised by critics.