‘Emperor Jones’ a Peak Experience

A dedicated group known as Bay Area Radio Drama in San Francisco has turned the theater of the air into acoustical art with its startling recording of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.”

The drama, directed by the famed Jose Quintero, the foremost director of O’Neill’s works, will be broadcast at 9:30 tonight over KCRW-FM (88.9). This is radio drama at a level of craft and hallucinatory intensity that plops you in the middle of a tom-tom chanting Caribbean island and never lets you go until the entitled Emperor Jones, like Oedipus, is swallowed up by the ancient gods that claim him.

Jones, the lowly Pullman porter-turned-supernatural-charlatan on the run from rebellious natives, was the first major role ever written for a black actor. An insightful commentary by O’Neill scholar Travis Bogard at the end of the hourlong recording charts the significance of the 1920 play and the actors who forged its popularity (first Charles S. Gilpin, followed by the famous Paul Robeson).

Jones here is powerfully rendered by Joe Morton. What’s stunning about the production is the sound design by Academy Award-winner Randy Thom (“The Right Stuff”). The crew went on location, recording the show for desired echoey, acoustical effects among the boulders in the desert of Joshua Tree National Monument.

You feel the presence of the jungle in a steamy way that not only separates the experience from a stage production but also enhances it until you’re ready to jump into a war dance. Here’s radio drama at its peak. It doesn’t get any better than this.