The Emperor Jones Concludes National Theatre Season

A new production of Eugene O'Neill's 1921 expressionist drama The Emperor Jones will be presented as the final production of The National Theatre's Travelex £10 season, according to Whatsonstage.com.  It will begin previews on August 22nd and open on August 28th.

The production, previously a hit at London's Gate Theatre, will once again be helmed by Thea Sharrock, who recently scored a hit with the West End revival of Equus.  Paterson Joseph will reprise his performance in the title role of the play, which will be staged to fit the National Theatre's 1,100-seat Olivier space (the Gate Theatre seats 70 people). 

According to the British theatre website, The Emperor Jones is about an "American ex-convict who connives his way into a dictatorship over a remote West Indies island. Faced with revolt, the delusional 'Emperor' escapes to the dark forest where the searing heat and ominous pulse of his trackers' drums take their toll."  The role of Brutus Jones was famously played by Paul Robeson in 1925; he repeated the performance in a 1933 film version

The National Theatre will also present, as part of the Travelex season, a new production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, with Joseph, Anne-Marie Duff and Oliver Ford Davies, directed by Marianne Elliott (opening July 11th at the NT Olivier).  As part of the theatre's summer season, the theatre will stage Matt Charman's The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder, directed by Sarah Frankcom (opening June 20th at the NT Cottesloe); Clare Bayley's adaptation of the 19th century Swedish play The Enchantment, by Victoria Benedictsson, directed by Paul Miller (opening at the Cottesloe August 1st); and Harold Pinter's The Hothouse, directed by Ian Rickson, with Lia Williams, Stephen Moore and Finbar Lynch (opening at the NT Lyttelton on July 18th).

Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk for more information.