The Blacks: A Clown Show is a play by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 dramatist Jean Genet

Jean Genet

Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...

. Published in 1958, it was first performed in a production directed by Roger Blin

Roger Blin

Roger Blin was a French actor and director notable for directing the first production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot....

 at the Théatre de Lutèce in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, which opened on 28 October 1959.

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:
The Blacks was, after The Balcony

The Balcony

The Balcony is a play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. Since Peter Zadek directed its first production at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1957, the play has attracted many of the greatest directors of the 20th century, including Peter Brook, Erwin Piscator, Roger Blin, Giorgio Strehler, and...

, the second of Genet's plays to be staged in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The production was the longest-running Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 non-musical of the decade. This 1961 New York production opened on the 4th May at the St Marks Playhouse and ran for 1,408 performances. It was directed by Gene Frankel

Gene Frankel

__notoc__Eugene V. "Gene" Frankel was an American actor, theater director, and acting teacher especially notable in the founding of the off-Broadway scene...

, with sets by Kim E. Swados, music by Charles Gross

Charles Gross

Charles "Charlie" Gross is an American Film and TV composer, living in New York City.Gross was educated at Harvard University , the New England Conservatory and Mills College and a student of Darius Milhaud. He arranged for the West Point Band for three years, and served in the US Army...

, and costumes and masks by Patricia Zipprodt

Patricia Zipprodt

Patricia Zipprodt was an American costume designer. She was known for her technique of painting fabrics and thoroughly researching a project's subject matter, especially when it was a period piece...

. The original cast featured James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...

 as Deodatus, Roscoe Lee Browne

Roscoe Lee Browne

Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie...

 as Archibald, Louis Gossett, Jr.

Louis Gossett, Jr.

Louis Cameron Gossett, Jr. is an American actor best known for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman and Fiddler in the 1970s television miniseries Roots...

 as Edgar, Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson

Cicely Tyson is an American actress. A successful stage actress, Tyson is also known for her Oscar-nominated role in the film Sounder and the television movies The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Roots....

 as Stephanie, Godfrey Cambridge

Godfrey Cambridge

-External links:*...

 as Diouf, Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...

 as the Queen and Charles Gordone

Charles Gordone

Charles Edward Gordone was an American playwright, actor, director, and educator. He was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and devoted much of his professional life to the pursuit of multi-racial American theater and racial unity.-Early years:Born Charles Edward...

 as the burglar.

Shi Mei Li directed the play in 1983.

Sources

• Bradby, David. 1998. "Genet, Jean." In The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Ed. Martin Banham. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 417. ISBN 0521434378.
• Genet, Jean
  Jean Genet
  Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
  
  . 1960. The Blacks: A Clown Show. Trans. Bernard Frechtman. New York: Grove P. ISBN 0802150284.