The Emperor Jones
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- This article is about the play. For the independent record label, see Emperor Jones.
The Emperor Jones is a play by Eugene O'Neill which tells the tale of an Brutus Jones, an African American man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a Caribbean island, and sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the forest in an attempt to escape his former subjects who have rebelled against him.
Charles Sidney Gilpin was the first to play the role of Brutus Jones on stage on November 1, 1920 at The Playwright's Theatre in New York. Paul Robeson, who played Brutus Jones in the 1924 revival of the play, was chosen to star in the 1933 film version, which also featured Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, and Fredi Washington, was adapted for film by DuBose Heyward and directed by Dudley Murphy. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Louis Gruenberg wrote an opera of this name which was performed in 1933 with Lawrence Tibbet in the title role.
The play might be based on the life on Henri Christophe.
