The Emperor Jones

Emperor Jones, The

    Author: Eugene O'Neill

    First Performance: 1920, New York

    Published: 1921

    Genre: Drama in 8 scenes

    Setting: West Indian island, 1920

    Cast: 7m, 1f, extras

Brutus Jones, a larger-than-life black American, has by emulating the whites' grasping behaviour become emperor of a West Indian island. Now, after two years' reign, he faces a revolt from the natives. He is well prepared, with food hidden in the jungle and a stolen fortune on Martinique, where he intends to escape to. He has also persuaded the gullible natives that he can be killed only by a silver bullet. Setting off into the jungle, accompanied by the ceaseless drumming of his pursuers' tom-toms, he soon gets lost, fails to find his food, and is haunted by visions. He first shoots at ‘little formless fears’ then at the vision of Jeff,...

[The entire page is 368 words long]

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