Rex Ingram as Jean Christophe in Haiti, by William DuBois, as a tempestuous liberated slave who led the people of Haiti in revolt and defied Napoleon Bonaparte.
The play opened at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem, March 2, 1938 and transferred to Daly's Theater on West 63rd St. on July 11. It ran until Sept. 24 (168 performances). It has been described as a "melodramatic recounting of the 1802 uprising, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, that Orson Welles used as a basis for his now-famous Voodoo Macbeth, but Haiti depicts the actual events that transpired to give the Haitians back their country and rule."
It was a production by the Federal Theater Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Times's critic Brooks Atkinson called Ingram's performance "gusty" and noted, "Mr. Ingram has been a good actor for a long time. It is not very often, however, that he finds a heroic part like that of Christophe, the leader of a cause. Massive inside a gaudy uniform, active as a pole-vaulter, and gleaming with sincerity, Mr. Ingram gives a rattling good performance." He also noted, "What with one thing and another, there is enough history in Haiti to make it socially respectable."