Significant Productions of Dutchman
Read through the chosen block quotes for some published reviews! See how each reviewer discusses Dutchman and the characters.
Dutchman opened at Cherry Lane Theater in New York City on March 24th, 1964, to perhaps the most excited acclaim ever accorded an off-broadway production and shortly thereafter received the Village Voice's Obie Award. It was part of a cycle of new plays. It ran from March 24, 1964 to February 6, 1965.
Director: Edward Parone Set Designer: William Ritman Producers: Edward Albee, Clinton Wilder Jr., and David Barr Cast: Robert Hooks played Clay; Jennifer West played Lula Awards: Obie Award - Best American Play 1964 |
By teasing and taunting the young man with sexual provocations and cutting words until she goads him to a venomous outburst against her. Whereupon she stabs him with a knife, this young woman, with sadistic methods, indicates the ugly ways in which some whites agitate and abuse some Negroes and then destroy them. And the young man, by falling for her come-on and then losing his cool and spewing his scorn on her, reveals the pathetic vulnerability of some Negroes to the trickery of some whites." |
The story and dialog bear a resemblance to the familiar themes of several (white) homosexual playwrights, who pit carnivorous women against ethical, helpless men time and again. This impression is reinforced by the performances of Miss Knight, who is very forceful, and Freeman, who is essentially weak, even in his tirade. It is hard to say whether this theme has gotten tangled with white-black conflict in Jones' play, but the performances and direction seem to suggest it." |
Director Bill Duke is the recipient of numerous awards including the AFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the NAACP’s Special Award for Outstanding Achievement, SCLC’s Drum Major for Justice Film Award and a Cable Ace Award. |
This version of Dutchman took place on a moving bus!
Dutchman, Directed by Michael Oatman
FRONT Madison Residency Artist Michael Oatman will direct Dutchman, a play written by legendary poet and playwright Amiri Baraka. The fiery and controversial writer captures the turbulent and angry times that birthed this play, the 1960s. The piece is an allegorical quagmire that features a conversation on seedy, sweaty New York subway train between a reserved black businessman, Clay, and a flirtatious white woman, Lula.
Dutchman, Directed by Michael Oatman
FRONT Madison Residency Artist Michael Oatman will direct Dutchman, a play written by legendary poet and playwright Amiri Baraka. The fiery and controversial writer captures the turbulent and angry times that birthed this play, the 1960s. The piece is an allegorical quagmire that features a conversation on seedy, sweaty New York subway train between a reserved black businessman, Clay, and a flirtatious white woman, Lula.
Dutchman/TRANSit: Daring dual production about race in a subway car
By Chris Jones Chicago Tribune Sept. 4, 2016
By Chris Jones Chicago Tribune Sept. 4, 2016
Dutchman, a poetic masterpiece, is a deeply personal and furiously political play penned just as Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones) was in the midst of divorcing his white wife and fully embracing black nationalism, even as the movement was embracing him” |
Notice the difference in this reviewers initial description of the play and calling out Lula as the predator who instigates the violence.
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MAY 7, 2014 The Racially Charged ‘Dutchman’ at National Black Theater Off Broadway
Review by Alexis Soloski The subway is the city’s great equalizer, a place where all of New York can jostle peaceably. But in “Dutchman,” the incendiary 1964 play by LeRoi Jones, proximity breeds anger, then danger, then death." How does this reviewer talk about Clay and Lula’s interaction?The focus seems to be more on Clay’s aggression rather than Lula’s inciting words and actions.
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“Dutchman” suggests that certain social problems are insoluble. They are destined to recur, while others look on with seeming indifference. When Lula kills Clay, none of the other passengers seem to mind, though they do help dispose of the body. Well, that’s the subway for you.” Beyond its difficult racial politics there’s a deep-dyed misogyny that remains present and apparently even attractive.” |
Lula utters a shameless invitation and then a number of racial slurs. Suddenly, Clay throws off his middle-class politeness and turns menacing. He slaps her and tells her he could strangle her. His suit and his New Yorker magazine conceal his pure, “pumping black heart.” He sits, he says, “in this buttoned-up suit, to keep myself from cutting all your throats.” As he concludes his speech, Lula stabs him in the gut. Soon another young man (Mr. Atkins again) enters the car. Lula readies an apple.” Below quote is reminiscent of the Black Aesthetic and notions of "acting black"
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