Mulatto (play)

Last updated
Mulatto
Written by Langston Hughes
Characters
  • Robert Lewis
  • Colonel Norwood
  • Cora Lewis
  • Sallie Lewis
  • Fred Higgins
  • William Lewis
  • assorted black servants and white townspeople
Date premieredOctober 24, 1935 (1935-10-24)
Place premiered Vanderbilt Theatre
Original languageEnglish
Subjectanti-black racism in the US South
Genretragedy
Setting1930s Georgia plantation

Mulatto: A Tragedy of the Deep South is a tragic play about race issues in the American south by Langston Hughes. It was produced on Broadway in 1935 by Martin Jones, [1] where it ran for 11 months and 373 performances. [2] It is one of the earliest Broadway plays to combine father-son conflict with race issues. [3]

Contents

Plot

Act One

Act Two

Characters

Reception

Historian Joseph McLaren notes that the play was popular with audiences because they were intrigued by the tragic mulatto theme. [1] Critics, however, were more negative, perhaps in part because director/producer Martin Jones altered much of the plot, moving the play away from tragedy and into melodrama. [1] Melinda D. Wilson notes that Jones's addition of a rape scene may have helped sell tickets, but also may have reinforced stereotypes of violent and promiscuous blacks—the kinds of stereotypes that Negro and Mulatto writers of the time were trying to stamp out. [3]

Themes

The play includes themes in addition to the "tragic mulatto". Including the father and son conflict, racial miscegenation, and "intercaste prejudice". "Intracaste prejudice" refers to the ways some Negro/Mulatto people of the time held prejudices against other Negro/Mulattoes. [4] Literary scholar Germain J. Bienvenu argues that the play examines this prejudice through the character of Robert. "Bert" neglects the embrace of the Black community in favor of attempting to assimilate into the white community. [4] The father and son conflict is present and interwoven with the "mulatto" theme through the relationship between Bert and Colonel Thomas Norwood, specifically Bert's desire for Colonel to recognize him as a white son, and the Colonel's refusal to do so. [4] This is what makes Robert such a tragic mulatto figure, similar to other characters in prevalent in Langston Hughes' work. [5] The theme of "plantation culture" is also evident in the play because of its setting. Plantation culture refers to the structural, economic and cultural effects had on the American South, and how this culture has led to the continuation of the mistreatment of African Americans in the South. [6] The plantation of the American South is designed to divide race and maintain the power held by white owners through both socially and architecturally. [6] The presence or existence of "plantation culture" perpetuates the racial divide even outside of the setting. [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 McLaren, Joseph (1997). Langston Hughes, Folk Dramatist in the Protest Tradition, 1921–1943. Greenwood. pp. 59–78. ISBN   9780313287190.
  2. 1 2 "Mulatto". IBDb: Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  3. 1 2 Wilson, Melinda D. (2004). "Langston Hughes". In Wintz, Cary D.; Finkelman, Paul (eds.). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y. Taylor & Francis. p. 827. ISBN   9781579584580.
  4. 1 2 3 Bienvenu, Germain J. (2008). "Intracaste Prejudice in Langston Hughes' Mulatto". In Bloom, Harold (ed.). Langston Hughes. Infobase. pp. 23–40. ISBN   9780791096123.
  5. Davis, Arthur (1955). "The Tragic Mulatto Theme in Six Works of Langston Hughes". Phylon. 16 (2): 195–204. doi:10.2307/272721. JSTOR   272721.
  6. 1 2 3 Nghana, Lewis (2012). "Plantation Performance in Langston Hughes' "Mulatto"". CLA Journal. 55 (3): 279–95. JSTOR   44395298.