The Noose - A Play

Author:  Frankétienne
Translator: Asselin Charles
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press (2026)

The Noose (also known as Pèlin-Tèt) focuses on the lives of two Haitian immigrants living in a grubby basement apartment in New York City in 1978. Polydor, is a middle-class intellectual and political refugee, and Pyram is a lower-class laborer. The dramatic thrust of the play surges from their apparently irreconcilable ideological and social differences. The countrymen conduct a circular dialogue that is absurd, humorous, poignant, and pregnant with mistrust, misunderstanding, and despair. Ultimately, Polydor and Pyram emerge with a prise de conscience of their common fate and a recognition of their solidarity as Haitians, as Black men, as immigrants, and as workers. 

This English translation will give a new generation access to this text and is accompanied by an introduction by translator Asselin Charles and an afterword by Jean Jonassaint.