Oakland Theater Project will stage Lorraine Hansberry’s final play Les Blancs (The Whites), adapted by Robert Nemiroff and directed by James Mercer II. Les Blancs plays at Oakland Theater Project from July 11—27.
Les Blancs is Lorraine Hansberry’s final work—and the one she considered her most important. Adapted and published after Hansberry’s death by her husband, Robert Nemiroff, the play explores the waning days of early 20th-century colonialism in an unnamed African nation, where the dynamics of colliding interests and loyalties unfold—with inescapable consequences.
“At a time when discussions of U.S. expansionism are resurfacing, these themes of colonization have never felt more urgent,” said OTP Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran. “This exploration of power, politics, and liberation resists simplistic narratives of good and evil, challenging us to confront the brutal complexities of empire.”
This production tells the story through the lens of “The Woman” played by a cast of eight Black women -- Jeunee Simon, Aidaa Peerzada, Rezan Asfaw, Brittany Sims, Champagne Hughes, Monique Crawford, Jacinta Kaumbulu and Success Ufondu, who then embody all of the characters in the play.
“It was fascinating to me how a Black woman wrote this play, yet no Black woman in the show says any dialogue,” said Director James Mercer II. “I wanted to really illuminate that a Black woman told this story and I hope audiences will enter with curiosity about this point of view.”
Les Blancs is the third production in Oakland Theater Project’s 2025 Season: Reckoning— a lineup featuring powerful stories that delve into some of the most influential issues of this moment in American history.
“Each play confronts the urgent questions of our era,” said OTP Executive Director Michael Socrates Moran. “From the targeting of trans people and mass deportations to the erasure of truth in authoritarian regimes, the explicit return of colonial ambitions, and the role of art as both refuge and resistance. We aim to engage our audience in a way that is personal, compassionate, and moving—not punishing, but also not escapist. In a time of growing numbness and disillusionment, we believe theater has an essential role to play. As the ground shifts beneath us, we refuse to look away.”
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