The Emperor Jones
José Limón Dance Company
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast Wednesday, March 13, 1957

Music: Heitor Villa-Lobos
Scenery: Kim Edgar Swados     Costumes: Pauline Lawrence
Mask Design: Luke Moyer     Percussion: John Scaduto, John Grosso

The Emperor Jones - José Limón
The White Man - Lucas Hoving
The Emperor's Subjects - Richard Fitzgerald, Michael Hollander,
Harlan McCallum, José Gutiérrez, Martin Morginsky, Chester Wolenski
 

In the play by O'Neill, Jones, a fugitive from a chain gang, sets himself up as emperor of an island domain. He becomes a tyrant, and his mistreatment of his subjects causes them to rebel, hunt him down and bring him to an ignominious end. This dance version elaborates on the central theme, that of the superstitious terror of the hunted emperor. In the style of a free fantasy, the dance makes no attempt to adhere to the play's sequence, but rather seeks to give it another dimension. There are a series of episodes which concern Jones' visions and hallucinations of his earlier life.