Dutchman The Play

Dutchman by LeRoi Jones

The action focuses almost exclusively on Lula( Iva Stelmak), a 30 year old white woman, and Clay(Deforrest Taylor), a 20 year old black male, who 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 black 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.