Findings

History of Irishface, Blackface, Minstrelsy, and Folk Traditions

There is a large amount of scholarly work demonstrating that and analyzing how Black people have been dehumanized in minstrel shows, film, and theatre in the Americas. However, there has been less critical attention to the use of blackface in Irish theatre, despite its important history. According to scholar Stanley J Lemons, before the American Civil War, “[w]hen vaudeville developed, it had a full range of ethnic and racial comic characters. The Irishman was the most popular in the 1880s but was pushed aside by the man in blackface in the 1890s.” Scholar John Brannigan has noted that “…in the years before the American Civil War, “it was by no means clear that the Irish were white.” So, the Irish were also mocked and dehumanized onstage in a similar manner in the past. And, as a paradox, Irish performers who participated in blackface entertainment did so to distance themselves from being seen as a minority. 

By contrast, we have the concept of Irishface, which is a term that Dr. Johnson has coined to describe how Irish productions sought to create synergies between Blackness and Irishness. One of the central research questions that I investigated for Dr. Johnson was how the blackface was received by Irish audiences. We were astonished that there was little objection in the Irish press, even though in the US this would not have been the case, given that at this time, they had staged the play with Black actors to much critical acclaim. Through the research I helped uncover, we hypothesized that Rutherford Mayne, the Irish actor who performed Brutus Jones in blackface, could have been referencing the practice of  “sooting up,” from Irish mumming festivals. 

One of the things I discovered in my research is that in Ireland, the practice of “sooting up” has not always been seen as a form of blackface at all. Using coal or dirt, this practice has also been used as a disguise and a form of folkloric practice called “mumming.” Brannigan observes: “In Alan Gailey’s seminal study of Irish Folk Drama, the pervasive use of blackface is explained as “the oldest and simplest form of disguise which we know. It is presumed to have no racial connotations, nor is it linked to blackface minstrelsy, and importantly, it seems to predate the origins of blackface theater.” “Sooting up” was a way to hide one’s identity, not to pretend to be another race. Examples of this have been seen in traditions like the wren boys, which was part of St. Stephen’s day celebrations. Young boys would dress up in costumes and disguises that would include masks or blackening their faces to mimic a wren. They would go from house to house, singing and expecting the households to give them money. So, not only could darkened skin be a reference to the ways that the Irish were stereotyped onstage, the productions could also be drawing from this cultural history in their stagings of The Emperor Jones to suggest connections between the two cultures, or what has been called the Black and Green Atlantics.

Irish Culture in the 1942 Emperor Jones

The 1942 Irish production in Galway incorporated Irish culture through the Gaelic language, dance, music, and symbolism. Given that O’Neill’s play is set in the Caribbean, it draws on diasporic motifs of Black Empire and culture. However, we suspected there may be some diversions from the references to Black culture in the Galway production. While going through newspaper archives, I discovered that the part of the African witch doctor, who arrives alongside the crocodile in Brutus’ final vision, was played by Irish dancer Maurice Selwyn from the Irish Ballet Club (figure 1 and figure 2). I also learned that the music was provided by “B. Ward’s band,” which my research revealed to be Barry Ward’s Ceilidhe band (figure 3 and figure 4). A Ceilidhe band plays traditional Irish music. Given this, we believe they could have incorporated Irish music into this production rather than the motif of the beating African tom-tom drum throughout the play. Finally, the use of a dragon in this production (figure 5) instead of a crocodile also contributes to the uniquely Irish spin being placed on the production. As part of my research assignment, I looked into the significance of dragons in Ireland, and found that they are important to Irish folklore and religious legends. In medieval times, on St. John the Baptist's feast day and near midsummer, fires were lit to scare away dragons. A healing spring can be found at the site where St. Attraca allegedly slew a dragon in the fifth century. Replacing a crocodile, which has connections to Africa, with an Irish folkloric figure, as well as using dancers from an Irish ballet company and setting the scenes to what was likely traditional Irish music has strong implications. These distinctly Irish elements show how this production was making an effort to relate Brutus Jones's struggle as a Black character to the struggles and oppression of the Irish people.  

Photographs and Drawings

Figure 1 is an image I found on the Irish Newspaper Archive. It depicts the actress May Craig in costume and makeup for the 1927 Abbey Theatre production in Dublin, and is one of the few photos of the minor characters from these productions. Here, it is obvious that she is fully in blackface. Figure 2 is a poster depicting Irish actor Rutherford Mayne as Brutus Jones (who would play the role many times) from the same production also shows his use of blackface. These images show definitively that the Black characters in this show were indeed meant to be depicted as Black. Even if the Irish were using some elements of the show to represent Irish culture, these reviews and images make it clear that Brutus Jones and the Irish natives were in blackface.