Chapter 31 - Native Son on Stage and Screen

Summary

Richard Wright was a cinephile, and Bigger was born at the movies. This essay traces the history of stage and film adaptations of Native Son between 1941 and 2019, a history animated by Wright’s unyielding commitment to cinema and the no less rigid institutional racism of the American film industry during his lifetime. It begins with the American film producers that pursued the rights to Wright’s bestseller upon its release, aiming to whitewash the novel so that its Hollywood adaptation could circulate in a national film distribution system overdetermined by Jim Crow audiences. It then examines the two international productions of Native Son that Wright actively shaped: a play directed by Orson Welles; and a film, starring Wright himself, produced in Argentina and directed by Pierre Chenal in 1951. It concludes with assessments of the adaptations that have succeeded Wright’s efforts on the stage and screen, most recently Nambi E. Kelley’s play (2016) and Suzan-Lori Parks and Rashid Johnson film (HBO, 2019).