Ceremonies in Dark Old Men is a two-act stage play by the American playwright Lonne Elder III. It premiered Off Broadway in a production by the Negro Ensemble Company"Negro Ensemble Company, The (1967- )", BlackPast.org."About the Negro Ensemble Co.", American Masters, August 18, 2004. at St. Mark's Playhouse on February 4, 1969, running for 40 performances. Later in the 1969 season, it received a commercial production at The Pocket Theatre, resulting in a long and successful run that added up to 320 performances. A drama about a struggling American black family living in Harlem, it balances humorous gambits of relief in the tragic circumstances that unfold. Set in the 1950's, the protagonist, Russell B. Parker, is an aging black barbershop owner and widower, persuaded to participate in a bootlegging get-rich-quick scheme by his sons, in spite of the protestations of his dutiful daughter. The play addresses themes of self-deception, greed, the comfort of rituals, and the systemic economic exclusion of African American families.
The play garnered two Drama Desk Awards, Most Promising Playwright for Elder, and Outstanding Performance for Douglas Turner Ward in 1969. That same year, it was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and selected the runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. James Baldwin stated, "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men is the most truthful play I have seen in a long time. Everyone connected with it deserves a prize, especially the author, Lonne Elder III."'
Characters Russell B. Parker: A widower who runs a barbershop that has no customers and who lives upstairs with his daughter and two sons. Parker is not an ambitious man, but he is amiable and ordinarily honest, at least until he is talked into going along with Theo's schemes. He loves his children, and his attempts to recover his youth are touching. William Jenkins: Parker's friend and checkers opponent who finds himself drawn into the crooked dealings that Parker's sons undertake. He and Parker obviously feel deep affection for each other as they engage in badinage over their checkers games, which Jenkins always wins. Theopolis Parker: Russell Parker's older son, known as Theo. He teams up with Blue Haven to set up a bootlegging business but finds himself doing all the work while his father dips into the till. Theo is eager to run a con, and he has better judgment than his brother Bobby. Bobby Parker: Russell Parker's younger son, an expert burglar and shoplifter. As the second son, Bobby resents playing second fiddle to Theo, whose thoughtless insulting descriptions of Bobby probably help compel Bobby to perform reckless criminal acts under the spell of Blue Haven. Adele Eloise Parker: Parker's hardworking daughter, who supports the whole family with her office job. Adele is intelligent and conscientious, but she seems doomed to be used by men. Blue Haven: A tough man of the streets who knows how to get along and exploit weaker men such as Theo and Bobby. In his blue ensembles and dark glasses, carrying his gold-headed cane, he can become menacing. Young Girl: The unnamed pickup with whom Parker becomes infatuated. She is callous and exploitative, and she is a great disappointment to Parker.
Plot
Act I
A floundering Harlem barbershop is the setting and the cauldron of action that leads to tragic consequences. Russell B. Parker, a former vaudeville hoofer, is a man of big dreams but small ambitions. He hardly works at all, often spending the time incessantly playing checkers with his friend, William Jenkins. Parker lives with Theopolis and Bobby, his two unemployed sons, and Adele, his hard-working daughter. The ghost of his dead wife, a woman who drove herself into an early grave working to support the family, nags at his conscience. Adele deeply resents that she is carrying the entire family financially. She announces that she's done supporting her father's failing shop and freeloading brothers. If they do not find paying jobs immediately, she'll shutter the barbershop and kick them out on the street. Theo proposes they go into business selling "black lightning," his homemade corn whiskey, and convinces his father to meet Harlem crime boss Blue Haven. Blue gets them started and receives a cut of the profits in exchange for protection from police raids or rival criminals.
Act II When the operation proves successful, Theo becomes the household's new breadwinner, but the family becomes divided. Adele blinds herself to their criminal activities through a romantic distraction. Bobby conspicuously spends time away from the shop and is rumored to be involved in a rash of city burglaries. And Parker often steals money from the operation's till, so he can entertain a Young Girl who has become the object of his affection.
While the family disintegrates and the retribution of Parker's choices threatens everything, he retreats into atmospheric tales of his life in vaudeville. In the final stages of the play, he even attempts to summon dance steps of his youth to little avail. Parker and his family's dreams of a better life cannot shake the spectre of a racist society, bringing their story to a tragic conclusion.
Themes The play concerns the ceremonies acted out by African American men. Parker is kept afloat by the fact that his daughter Adele works, which gives the family enough of an income to survive. Jenkins, the other "Dark Old Man" of the title, finds a sanctuary in Parker's barbershop, where he trades insults with Parker and plays checkers. This part exemplifies the "ceremonies" of the title, the game. The barbershop provides a place where the two dark old men can be insulated from a society in which they have failed under the norms of the capitalist, racist society of the 1960s. According to the Oxford Companion to African American Literature: The play is a dramatization of rituals—of survival, of friendship, of deception and manipulation, of self-deception, of black male friendship, of shifting intrafamilial allegiances, and of black manhood. As Elder presents the ineffectual lives of a Harlem family entrapped by rituals of economic and spiritual dependence, he urges African Americans and African American communities to become aware of and to break free of “ceremonies” that assuredly lead to personal loss and tragedy. Echoing Douglas Turner Ward's warning to black Americans whose “happiness” and survival are predicated upon white America's relationship to black America in Happy Ending (1966), Ceremonies challenges the myth that the social, political, and economic plight of black America rests in white people's hands. Through layers of ritual, Elder demonstrates the futility, corruption, and internal disruptions that result from efforts to undermine a capitalist system that seeks to determine and define African Americans’ worth and selfhood.
Original productions CharacterSt. Mark's Playhouse, New York City, February 4 — March 9, 1969
(40 performances)The Pocket Theatre, New York City, April 28, 1969 — February 15, 1970
(320 performances)DirectorMr. Russell B. ParkerDouglas Turner Ward Richard WardEdmund Cambridge Mr. William JenkinsArthur FrenchArnold JohnsonTheopolis ParkerWilliam JayBilly Dee WilliamsAdele Eloise ParkerRosalind CashBette HowardBobby ParkerDavid DowningRichard MasonBlue HavenSamual Blue, Jr.Carl Lee Young GirlJudyann ElderDenise Nicholas
Critical response Ceremonies in Dark Old Men received positive reviews after its premiere in 1969. The critic and director Harold Clurman of The Nation wrote, "The only new play which has genuinely interested me for some time..." Clive Barnes' review for The New York Times stated, "the honesty has an ironic, bitter aftertaste." Tom Prideaux Life Magazine Theatre Critic remarked, "Ceremonies has pumped life not only into family drama but into old-fashioned playwriting. Shunning the gauze walls and gauzier ambiguities of avante-guarde drama..." John Simon, the theater critic hailed it "a joy for everyone" in his review A Phoenix Too Infrequent featured in New York Magazine. Edith Oliver from The New Yorker stated in her review, “Ceremonies is the first play by Lonne Elder III to be done professionally, and if any American has written a finer one I can’t think what it is.”
Other productions Subsequent productions of the play have featured many prominent actors, including Denzel Washington, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Glynn Turman, Keith David, and Norm Lewis.
The Theatre at St. Clements, New York City, April 11, 2025 - June 29, 2025 (44 performances). The revival was heralded as a New York Times Critic's Pick. Directed by Clinton Turner Davis with the following cast:
Norm Lewis — Mr. Russell B. Parker James Foster Jr. — Mr. William Jenkins Bryce Michael Wood - Theopolis Parker Morgan Siobhan Green - Adele Eloise Parker Jeremiah Packer — Bobby Parker Calvin M. Thompson — Blue Haven Felicia Boswell — Young Girl Players State Theatre (Coconut Grove Playhouse), Miami, Florida, November 1, 1979 - 1980. (performance numbers unknown) Directed by Charles Turner with the following cast: Gilbert Lewis — Mr. Russell B. Parker Clarence Thomas — Mr. William Jenkins Arnold Wilkerson — Theopolis Parker Suzanne Stone — Adele Eloise Parker Denzel Washington — Bobby Parker John Archie — Blue Haven Joy Kelly — Young Girl
Theatre Four, New York City, Negro Ensemble Company, May 15 - June 30, 1985. (62 performances). Directed by Douglas Turner Ward with the following cast:
Douglas Turner Ward — Mr. Russell B. Parker Graham Brown — Mr. William Jenkins Ruben Santiago-Hudson — Theopolis Parker Patty Holley — Adele Eloise Parker Walter Allen Bennett Jr. — Bobby Parker Keith David — Blue Haven Tracy Camila Johns — Young Girl
Beverly Canon Theater, Los Angeles, Crossroads Theatre, February 5 - March 20, 1988. Directed by Judyann Elder with the following cast:
Edmund Cambridge — Mr. Russell B. Parker Teddy Wilson — Mr. William Jenkins Lawrence Hilton Jacobs — Theopolis Parker Joan Pringle — Adele Eloise Parker Dorian Gibbs — Bobby Parker Taurean Blacque — Blue Haven Stephanie E. Williams — Young Girl
The Balzer Theater at Herren's, Atlanta, True Colors Theatre Company, July 8 - August 19, 2007. Directed by Kenny Leon with the following cast:
Glynn Turman — Mr. Russell B. Parker Eugene Lee — Mr. William Jenkins Brandon J. Dirden — Theopolis Parker Karan Kendrick — Adele Eloise Parker Jason Dirden — Bobby Parker E. Roger Mitchell — Blue Haven Cara Patterson — Young Girl
Awards and nominations
Original Off Broadway Production Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref1969Drama Desk AwardMost Promising PlaywrightLonne Elder III Outstanding PerformanceDouglas Turner Ward The Stanley Drama AwardBest PlayLonne Elder III Pulitzer PrizeDramaLonne Elder III 1970Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle AwardPlaywritingLonne Elder III Stella Holt Memorial Playwright's Award Best Off Broadway PlayLonne Elder III Outer Critics Circle AwardDramaLonne Elder III
1979 Florida Revival Production Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref1979The Carbonell AwardSupporting ActressSuzanne Stone
1988 Los Angeles Revival Production Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref1989NAACP Theatre AwardBest Costume DesignFrank Billecci Best Set DesignVirgil Woodfork & Randall Camp Best Supporting ActorTaurean Blacque Teddy Wilson Lawrence Hilton Jacobs Best ActressJoan Pringle Best PlaywrightLonne Elder III Best DirectorJudyann Elder Best Play
2002 Atlanta Revival Production Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref2007Suzi Bass AwardsActingJason Dirden Glynn Turman Outstanding DirectionKenny Leon
2025 Off Broadway Revival Production