Funnyhouse of a Negro
| Funnyhouse of a Negro | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Adrienne Kennedy |
| Characters |
Sarah
Duchess of Hapsburg Queen Victoria Regina Jesus Patrice Lumumba Sarah's Landlady Raymond The Mother |
| Date premiered | January 14, 1964 |
| Place premiered | East End Theater, NYC |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama, One-act play |
Duchess of Hapsburg Queen Victoria Regina Jesus Patrice Lumumba Sarah's Landlady Raymond The Mother
Funnyhouse of a Negro is a one-act play by Adrienne Kennedy. Funnyhouse of a Negro opened off Broadway in 1964 and won the Obie award for Distinguished Play. It shared this title with Amiri Baraka's Dutchman. The play was written during the Black Arts Movement in the "theater of the absurd" and is set within the mind of the central character, Sarah. The play is studied in college and university settings more than it is actually performed.
The play tells the story of a young black woman named Sarah who lives in New York City. The play focuses on Sarah's internal struggle with her racial identity. She spends a great deal of time grappling with her feelings about her mixed ancestry—she worships her white mother and despises her black father. In order to demonstrate this complicated mental battle, Kennedy transforms the stage into a manifestation of Sarah's mind, and she uses various historical figures as representations of Sarah's black and white heritage. These character's are described as extensions of Sarah's self. The figures include Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Hapsburg, Patrice Lumumba, and Jesus Christ.
The play was written during The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. The Black Arts Movement had a strong masculine element in its work and mission, making Kennedy's powerful female voice a rarity for the time. With the central conflict of Funnyhouse of a Negro taking place in Sarah’s mind, we gain access to the true anxiety, entrapment, and alienation of what it felt like to be a black woman in America at this time. In this specific case, we zoom in on the obsession with whiteness and the anguish that comes with conflicting ancestry, and we ultimately witness the complete fragmentation of Sarah’s self, examining both her white self and black self.
The play begins with a dreamlike sequence of a woman in a white nightgown with long, dark hair crossing the stage. The woman (who we later learn is Sarah's mother) carries a bald head in her hands as a white curtain opens, revealing Sarah's bedroom. The entire play takes place in Sarah's mind. Sarah's room acts a symbol for her idolization of whiteness. The enormous, white statue of Queen Victoria is the prime example of this. The first scene is between Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Hapsburg, with the room acting as the Queen's chambers. This gives us an immediate glimpse into the permeability of the set—it constantly takes on new forms for its various inhabitants. The two women primarily discuss whiteness, as Queen Victoria states, "My mother was the light. She was the lightest one. She looked like a white woman.".
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