About the work
A play by Jean Genet subtitled 'a clown show', premiered on 28 October 1959 at the Théâtre de Lutèce in Paris, directed by Roger Blin and performed by Les Griots, a troupe formed specifically of Black actors.
Plot
A group of Black actors performs a ritual before a whiteface 'court' of judge, governor, missionary and queen: the repeatedly re-enacted murder of a white woman, while offstage the real execution of a traitor from their own ranks is being decided.
Cultural significance
Genet required that a white spectator, or a stand-in for one, always be present in the audience; the 1961 New York off-Broadway premiere, featuring performers such as James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Maya Angelou, ran for 1,408 performances, making it the longest-running off-Broadway play of its decade.