The Blacks

<p>''One evening,'' wrote Jean Genet in a prefatory note to <i>The Blacks</i> (1959), ''an actor asked me to write a play for an all-black cast. But what exactly is a black? First of all, what''s his colour?''<br><br>Stereotyping, masking and clowning would be the tools with which Genet dissected settled ideas of race and identity in this, one of his most successful (and controversial) works for the stage.<br><br>''In form, [<i>The Blacks</i>] flows as freely as an improvisation, with fantasy, allegory and intimations of reality mingled into a weird, stirring unity... Genet''s investigation of the color black begins where most plays of this burning theme leave off.'' <i>New York Times</i></p>