Dutchman (play)

Dutchman
Written by	Amiri Baraka
Characters	Clay Lula Riders of Coach Young Negro Conductor
Date premiered	March, 1964
Place premiered	Cherry Lane Theatre (Greenwich Village, New York City)
Original language	English

Clay

Lula

Riders of Coach

Young Negro

Dutchman is a play written by African-American playwright Amiri Baraka, born Everett LeRoi Jones. Dutchman was first presented at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village, New York City, on March 1964. The play, which won an Obie Award. was made into a film in 1967, starring Shirley Knight and Al Freeman Junior. Dutchman was the last play produced by Baraka under his birth name, LeRoi Jones. At the time, Baraka was in the process of divorcing his Jewish wife, Hettie Jones and embracing Black Nationalism. The Dutchman may be described as a political allegory depicting black and white relations during the time Baraka wrote it.

The play was revived in 2007 at the Cherry Lane Theatre starring Dulé Hill, and in 2013 was restaged by Rashid Johnson at the Russian and Turkish Baths in the East Village.

The action focuses almost exclusively on Lula, a white woman, and Clay, a black man, who both ride the subway in New York City. Clay's name is symbolic of the malleability of black identity and black manhood. It is also symbolic of integrationist and assimilationist ideologies within the contemporary Civil Rights Movement. Lula boards the train eating an apple, an allusion to the Biblical Eve. The characters engage in a long, flirtatious conversation throughout the train ride.

Lula sits down next to Clay. She accuses him of staring at her buttocks. She ignores his denials and uses stereotypes to correctly guess where he lives, where he is going, what Clay's friend, Warren, looks and talks like. Lula guesses that Clay tried to get his own sister to have sex with him when he was ten. Clay is shocked by her apparent knowledge of his past and says that she must be a friend of Warren.

Lula is glad that Clay is so easy to manipulate and puts her hand on his leg. She feeds him apples. She tells Clay to invite her out to the party he is going to. At this point, it is unclear whether Clay is really going to a party, but he tells her he really is. Lula vaguely alludes to having sex with Clay at her "apartment" after the "party." We don't know if these are real or conveniently made-up by Lula.

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