Play Review: Dutchman By Leroi Jones

Dutchman, a fresh play written by African-American controversial playwright Leroi Jones, otherwise known as Amiri Baraka, opened last week at the Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. The brief play, only consisting of two scenes, has caused much scandal on how American race relations are handled in the America. Jones takes this breakthrough work, which contains a mundane basis¬– a white woman and a black man being introduced on a New York subway car¬– and molds it into a fierce circumstance. The play emits, with every sentence an aroma of passion, violence, and race.

The curious play begins with one of the two protagonists, the villainous temptress, Lula. Lula, the flirtatious white woman, who illuminates Eve as she embarks on the subway car,

It is apparent that she is go into sit in the seat next to CLAY, and that she is only waiting for him to notice her before she sits.

Here Lula represents, not only a superior white America with her confidant manner, but also portrays a seductive female as she flaunts her red hair and loud lipstick. She is the embodiment of sex and hostility. As opposed to Clay, who is an icon of solitude and confinement. As the play progresses, the theme is not immediately evident, Baraka captures the audience with curiosity and intrigue. The theme is focused on Clay, the young traveling African American, and the matured white female, Lula. Clay unreceptive to his surroundings refocuses when Lula approaches him and waits for his acknowledgement of her. She takes the sit next to Clay and begins her coy banter with claims that Clay was starting down at the vicinity of her ass and legs. She uses this claim as a gateway to engage in conversation with Clay and begin making speculations about him, his history, and his race.

LULA: You look like you been trying to grow a beard. That's exactly what you look like. You look like you live in New Jersey with your parents and are trying to grow a beard. That's what. You look like you've been reading. Chinese poetry and drinking lukewarm sugarless tea. [Laughs, uncrossing and recrossing her legs]. You look like death eating a soda