Dutchman (play)

Dutchman
Written byAmiri Baraka
Characters
  • Clay
  • Lula
  • Riders of Coach
  • Young Negro
  • Passenger
  • Conductor
Date premieredMarch 1964
Place premieredCherry Lane Theatre (Greenwich Village, New York City)
Original languageEnglish

Dutchman is a play written by playwright Amiri Baraka, then known as LeRoi Jones. Dutchman was first presented at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, New York City, in March 1964 co-produced by Rita Fredricks. The play won an Obie Award; it shared this distinction with Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro.[1] Baraka's stage play was made into a film in 1967, starring Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Jr. Dutchman was the last play produced by Baraka under his birth name, LeRoi Jones. At the time, he was in the process of divorcing his Jewish wife, Hettie Jones, and embracing Black nationalism. Dutchman may be described as a political allegory depicting black and white relations during the time Baraka wrote it.[2]

The play was revived for the first time off-Broadway in 2007 at the Cherry Lane Theatre starring Dulé Hill and Jennifer Mudge, and in 2013 was restaged by Rashid Johnson at the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village.[3]

  1. ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Amiri Baraka (b. 1934) - also called Imamu Amiri Baraka". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009.
  2. ^ Davidson, Jiton Sharmayne, "Sometimes funny, but most times deadly serious: Amiri Baraka as political satirist", African American Review, 37.2-3, Summer-Fall 2003, JSTOR, accessed October 31, 2022.
  3. ^ Randy Kennedy, "A Play That's Sure to Make You Sweat - Baraka's 'Dutchman' to Be Staged in a Bathhouse", The New York Times, October 31, 2013, accessed October 31,2013.