Dutchman by Amiri Baraka
(08 – 26 Oct)

Presented by Outer Gaea Company and Théâtre Libre

Dutchman is Amiri Baraka’s award-winning, one-act play, revolving around two characters: Lula, a white woman, and Clay, a black man. It lands right at the intersectionality of race, gender, and class to present an explosive exploration of white privilege, masculinity, power, and sexuality.  The parallels between the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s and the Black Lives Matter movement of the present force the audience to look inward and ask uncomfortable questions about what, if anything, has changed? This Black History Month we celebrate the late Amiri Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones) both for his civil rights activism and as a revolutionary provocateur of African-American poetry; significantly affecting the course of American literature.

With an excellent cast featuring new and exciting talent, this acclaimed production proves to be an exceptional piece of modern theatre.

We are delighted that five years after working together on internationally renowned indie film Sable Fable, American Black Film Festival nominee, James Barnes, is reunited with Associate Director Sheila Nortley, who produced the award-winning film.  Nortley, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, makes her theatrical debut. The play is directed by Kaitlin Argeaux, founder of Théâtre Libre: the feminist physical theatre company committed to the staging of powerful female leads and the exploration and subversion of female heroine and villain archetypes.

Written by: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
Produced by: Natalie Chan
Directed by: Kaitlin Argeaux
Movement by: Justyna Ziarek
Associate Director: Sheila Nortley
Production: Jo Bunnell-Thompson (Production Manager)
Cast:  James Barnes (National Theatre, Theatre503, Rose Playhouse); Cheska Hill-Wood (Arcola, Rose Bankside, Camden People’s Theatre)