Bertolt Brecht, LeRoi Jones and Antonin Artaud

Bertolt Brecht, LeRoi Jones and Antonin Artaud

In LeRoi Jones's play, "Dutchman," elements of realism, naturalism and

non-realism abound. The play features characters such as Clay, a

twenty-year-old Negro, Lula, a thirty-year-old white woman, both white

and black passengers on a subway coach, a young Negro and a conductor.

All of these characters take a ride that, for each, ends with different

destinations and leaves the audience to sort through the details and

find conclusions themselves. In this play, Jones uses realistic,

naturalistic and non-realistic elements to convey social issues such as

racism in the author's own disillusioned style. Jones's portrayal is

supported with the influences of Bertolt Brecht and Antonin Artaud,

whose own disillusionment enhanced their works and greatly diversified

theatrical conventions. "Dutchman" is a play that should be talked

about by its audience so they can take part cleanse themselves of the

issues within, therefore, as many conclusions can be drawn by the

individuals exposed in this play as there are numbers of people that

have seen or read it.

Realism and naturalism arose out of a world which was increasingly becoming scientifically advanced. Airplanes,railroads, automobiles, steamboats and communication advances such as television, radio, the telephone and the telegraph

increased the speed and the amount of information that human

beings can send. Realism and naturalism " . . . arose in part

as responses to those new social and philosophical conditions

(Cameron and Gillespie, pg. 335)." Following in a realistic

style, Jones sets his play in contemporary times and in a contemporary

place- the subway. Jones sets the scene with a man sitting in a subway

seat while holding a magazine. Dim and flickering lights and darkness

whistle by against the glass window to his right. These aesthetic

adornments give the illusion of speed associated with subway travel.

Realists believed that the most effective purpose of art was to improve

humanity by portraying contemporary life and its problems in realistic

settings. Jones depicts racism and murder in a modern setting to

remind us that racism and racially motivated murders are not issues

only relegated to our nation's past, nor is the issue of

institutionalized racism.

Jones also used non-realistic elements in his play and was

probably influenced by Bertolt Brecht in doing so. Brecht once

wrote that " . . . to think, or write or produce a play also

means to transform society, to transform the state, to subject

ideologies to close scrutiny (Goosens, 1997)." Jones was

influenced by Brecht by producing a play in a revolutionary

poetic style which scrutinizes ideologies of race.