African Company presents Richard III at Unicorn Theatre

Based on a true story.

Forty years before the abolition of slavery, William Henry Brown, a free Black American, organizes a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III under his company, African Grove Theatre. At the same time, the leading producer of New York City, Stephen Price, has secured the famous English actor Junius Brutus Booth to play Richard III at his Park Theatre. Threatened by the potential success of Brown’s Richard III, Price is intent on shutting them down. While Brown fights to get his production to opening night, he must also contend with his company of African American actors who aren’t sure of their place in English drama, or if they’re even prepared for the consequences of presenting Shakespeare in their own way.


“…the personal and the historical, the comic and the angry propels THE AFRICAN COMPANY…theatrical and social concerns entwine with powerful resonances to today…Mr. Brown is a writer with a distinct voice and a powerful story to tell.” —Washington Post.

“What makes THE AFRICAN COMPANY…so effective is the way in which the playwright not only suggests the New York of 1821, and the particular circumstances of “freed” blacks in that era, but even…suggests their angers, concerns and tensions.” —New York Post.