'The Emperor Jones' at the National Theatre

Tonight saw a trip to the National to see 'The Emperor Jones' with Paterson Joseph in the lead role. It's a short play, only 70-odd minutes and that includes a lot of non-dialogue scenes with lots of physical action. It's the tale of an escaped convict who sets himself up as emperor on a Caribbean island facing over-throw by his people, re-living his life in flashbacks with ghosts as he tries to escape through the forest. That's the story, anyway.

The shock came with the first use of the word 'nigger' to describe the locals on the island, followed by it's continued use through the play, sometimes amended so that the insult was 'bush nigger'. It was clearly being used as a derogatory term by Jones to differentiate between himself as a clever, educated man and the locals who he'd fooled into accepting him as emperor. I have no idea whether the word had the power it now has when O'Neill wrote the play in the 1920s but I felt it almost as a shock to the system.

Some of the writing was a little bit obvious, with the emperor gradually losing his clothes throughout the play so he comes to resemble the locals wearing just trousers at the end or the emphasis on having five bullets in his pistol so you know that each use of a bullet will be a milestone. It also shared a lot of similarities with 'The Man Who Would Be King' (including the supposed invulnerability of the hero) but I'm not sure which came first.

The staging was quite spectacular, almost as if the sparser the dialogue the more effects or music would be poured onto the stage. Lots of physicality, running, jumping and dancing, almost tiring to watch in places. I liked the demon emerging from the forest floor in gouts of flame! It was a good watch and is part of the Travelex season so a bargain at a tenner.

Afterwards I met my doctor who was in the audience as I was letting people go out before me (wonder if that was his girlfriend and whether I should tease him...?). I committed the cardinal sin of taking a photo of the set in the theatre - Chris looked almost physically hurt that I dared to profane a sacred space with my camera. That led me into a photographic frenzy afterwards (I've said before that I lurve having a camera in my phone) so here are some pics of my journey from the National Theatre to Waterloo (they were taken without flash and aren't as crisp as I'd like).

The set for the first act of 'The Emperor Jones', the gold throne-room of the emperor. I like the carpet.

There was a wall of light-panels outside the NFI that cried out for experimental photos to be taken to see what effect the light would have.

St Paul's from the third floor balcony at the National.

The Millennium Wheel from behind the Royal Festival Hall.

Chairs outside the restaurant at the Royal Festival Hall.

Another scene behind the Royal Festival Hall, I liked seeing the hoarde of people pouring down the steps on their way home.

How often do you see a virtually empty corridor in Waterloo Tube Station?