Bill Duke directs the play, which runs through Feb. 10. Baraka won an Obie Award for the play, which he wrote under the name LeRoi Jones and which went up at the Cherry Lane in 1964. In the play, according to a release, "a white woman seduces a naïve, bourgeois black man on the train with terrifying results."

Hill is also the star of the current USA Network show "Psych" and has appeared in the films "Holes," "She's All That" and "Edmond." He has also appeared on Broadway in The Tap Dance Kid and Black and Blue, and his regional credits include Shenandoah (Paper Mill Playhouse) and The Little Rascals (Goodspeed).

Duke has directed such films as "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit" as well as episodes of TV's "Hill Street Blues." He also appeared in the films "Predator" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."

Baraka is also a poet, a novelist, an air force veteran and an academic who taught in the Department of African Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook from 1980 until his retirement in 1999.

Cherry Lane is at 38 Commerce Street off Seventh Avenue. For tickets call (212) 989-2020, ext. 21. For more information visit www.cherrylanetheatre.org.