Les Blancs
| Les Blancs | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Lorraine Hansberry |
| Characters |
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| Date premiered | November 15, 1970 |
| Place premiered | Longacre Theatre, New York City |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Africa, colonialism, revolution |
| Setting | Ztembe, a fictional sub-Saharan African country |
Les Blancs ("The Whites") is an English-language play by American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. It debuted on Broadway on November 15, 1970 and ran until December 19, 1970. The play was Lorraine Hansberry’s final work and she considered it her most important, as it depicts the plights of colonialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is her only play that takes place in Africa, and it uses both dance and music as signifiers of black and African cultures, a concept called the Black Aesthetic.
The play is about the experience of settlers, natives, and an American journalist in an unnamed African country in the waning days of colonial control.
The title is an echo reference to Jean Genet's 1959 play Les Negres (The Blacks), which Hansberry saw, and critically reviewed, during its 1960 U.S. premiere run.