That’s a useful tension to the extent that it makes an audience question its own place in history. In his brief scenes of conflict with Ms. Hunter as his father, we finally get a three-dimensional feeling of conflict instead of a cartoon diagram. Ms. Hunter, born to Greek parents in New York, was raised in England. Contrary to social media rumors, she has never worn makeup to darken her skin in “The Emperor.” (The play, a coproduction with three European theaters, had its debut in 2016.) Still, I don’t think anyone could have gotten more out of “The Emperor” than Ms. Hunter does.

Source: New York Times September 17, 2018 01:41 UTC