Harlem Duet

Harlem Duet
Harlem Duet
Written by	Djanet Sears
Characters	Billie; Mona ; Othello ; Magi (The Landlady); Amah (Billie's sister-in-law); Canada (Billie's father)
Date premiered	1997
Place premiered	Nightwood Theatre in Toronto
Original language	English
Setting	Harlem (1928); Harlem (Present); Harlem (1860)

Last updated November 29, 2022

Harlem Duet is a 1997 dramatic play by Canadian playwright Djanet Sears. Billie, a young graduate student in Harlem, deals with her husband Othello leaving her for a white woman named Mona.^[1] The play moves through time to show Billie and Othello's relationship (or an analogue thereof) being torn apart by racial tensions at a Southern US cotton plantation in 1860, and in Harlem in 1928 and the present. Though the characters draw inspiration from Shakespeare's play Othello , Billie and the story are original creations.

Plot summary

Act 1

Harlem, 1928. Billie and Othello discuss his infidelity with an unnamed white woman.

Harlem, Present. Billie lives in a walkup at the intersection of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Harlem, NY. She is emotionally and intellectually broken as her husband, Othello, has left her for a white colleague named Mona. Billie is supported by her landlady and by Amah, her sister-in-law (her brother Andrew's wife), while she writes and lives as a shut-in.

Southern US, 1860. Othello, here a slave and blacksmith, woos Billie by gifting her his mother's handkerchief.

Harlem, Present. Billie is experimenting with chemical tonics and warns Amah that they are deadly if ingested. She ignores the ringing phone, believing it to be Othello - Amah suggests it may be Billie's estranged father, Canada. Othello finally arrives with Mona (who is never seen on stage) to retrieve his things. He and Billie begin to divide their books and dive into a conversation on race relations and how cultural pressures impacted their marriage. Eventually, Othello kisses Billie and they make love. Afterwards, he brushes her off and lies to Mona in front of her.

Southern US, 1860. Othello tells Billie that he will not flee to Canada with her because he has fallen in love with his white mistress, 'Miss Dessy'.

Harlem, Present. Billie prepares to move out of the apartment she shared with Othello. He returns with her pot, and with news: he is reneging on his promise to pay for one of her graduate school courses, and he and Mona are engaged. He attempts to defend himself by saying that being with white women is easier.

Harlem, 1928. Othello is dead on the floor, holding his handkerchief. Billie stands over him with a bloody straight razor.

Harlem, Present. Billie concocts a potion and pours it over Othello's handkerchief, but before she can enact her plan, Magi interrupts with news of a visitor. It is Billie's long-absent father, Canada.

Act 2

Harlem, Present. Billie takes tea with Canada, who is eager to reunite with her. He presents her with her mother's ring and tries to make plans to visit again, but she is uncertain. The next day, Othello is back and Billie tells him she wants to return his handkerchief (given to earlier Billie in 1860), but that she needs a few days to 'find' it.

Southern US, 1860. Othello is lynched by hanging. Billie tells a story of a black man who wished to be white to his body.

Harlem, Present. Billie prepares the poisoned handkerchief and places it in a red box for Othello. In the process, she stains her hands with the solution and panics. She becomes violently ill (or possibly high), and Canada and Magi have an awkward conversation as they wait for her to recover. She finally emerges, and reconciles with Canada as he holds her and apologizes for being absent for so long.

Harlem, 1928. Othello and Billie sit in a dressing room as Billie shaves him. He claims he will never wear Blackface on stage, and says he is of Ira Aldridge stock, a great Black actor. Then he reveals that his White lover Mona is giving him the opportunity to play Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Billie cuts his throat with the razor.

Harlem, Present. Billie confesses to Magi that she plans to give Othello the poisoned handkerchief, but Magi argues that if African magic worked, the masters of slaves in the 1800s would have died a thousand times over. Billie is sick with anger and half-starved. She fantasizes (or remembers) seeing the apartment for the first time with Othello. They jump over a broom together, a traditional ceremony of marriage, and the memory dissipates. Magi takes Billie into the kitchen to feed her.

Later, Canada is cleaning the kitchen and encounters Othello, looking for the promised handkerchief. Othello sees the red box Billie prepared before her breakdown and takes it, telling Canada to say goodbye to Billie as she is absent.

Harlem, 1928. Othello is alone in a dressing room, dressing in tails and a top hat. He practices Othello's speech to Desdemona's father while applying black greasepaint - by the end of the speech he is in full Blackface.

Harlem, Present. Billie sings - she is in the psychiatric ward of Harlem Hospital where she is cared for by white doctors. Amah visits her. Canada enters and promises that he will not leave Billie alone again. Billie and Canada sing Aretha Franklin's version of Spanish Harlem together as the lights go down.

Themes, sources, and notes

Race and history

The play's main theme is the impact of race on social interactions. Sears' aim is to give a more significant place to black characters on the Canadian stage.

A possible interpretation of the play is that Othello has internalized racism and yearns for the white acceptance. Elizabeth Gruber highlights the role of Mona as an access point to the white world and culture.^[4]

This play also reasserts the existence of an African culture remaining among slaves descendants with the choice of its location, Harlem. The stage directions often reference strong symbols of African-American culture and history while ancient African customs permeate the play through Billie's interest in Voodoo.

Harlem, as a significant and symbolic location, is portrayed historically, politically and musically through the recurrence of African-American jazz music cues and audio recordings throughout the piece, including pieces from:

The play also engages in the recent concern for the construction of a Canadian-ness, embodied by Billie's father, Canada. According to Louise Harrington, the play relates to the movement of emancipation from English literature by adapting Shakespeare in a more political and contemporary way.^[5]

Literary sources

Harlem Duet is an offshoot of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello. The plot revolves around the interracial marriage; the characters are named after Shakespeare’s characters: Othello and Desdemona (Mona in the present days and Miss Dessy in 1860).

Harlem Duet is set in a time period immediately before Othello as a prequel to Shakespeare's play, and the curse Billie puts on the Othello's handkerchief provides an explanation as to why harm came to everyone in Shakespeare's play that touched the handkerchief that Othello gave Desdemona.

Playwright's notes

The following notes by the playwright Djanet Sears were included in the programme for the 2018 performance at the Tarragon Theatre:

In 1963, after Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, Malcolm X told a journalist that Martin's dream would become a nightmare before it was over. Harlem Duet explores both the dream and the nightmare. Set in three eras, 1860, just prior to the emancipation proclamation, 1928, during the Harlem Renaissance, and contemporary Harlem, at the corner of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X boulevards (an actual place in New York City, 125th Street and Lennox Avenue), Harlem Duet is a non-chronological prequel to Shakespeare's Othello. That is, events in Harlem Duet take place before the events in Shakespeare's story, although the time-frames in Harlem Duet are subsequent to those in Shakespeare's drama.

Shakespeare is a god in the theatre. He is the most famous playwright in the history of the world, and Othello is the most well-known Black character in all of theatre. In fact, Othello has achieved an archetypal status of mythic proportion. But portraits of Othello, the character, or Othello the syndrome (morbid jealousy), all appear to have been painted by non-Black people. I wondered who would Othello be if he were alive today? Who was Othello in my world, in my culture? I soon realized that I might actually know this guy, this Othello. I might, in fact, know him quite well.

I was assisted here by the convergence of two pieces of text that Mr. Shakespeare kindly provided. The first centered on an inconsistency in statements that Othello makes in reference to the origin of Desdemona's handkerchief (a major plot point in Shakespeare's play). In act three, scene four, Othello declares:

...That handkerchief did an Egyptian to my mother give; she was a charmer, and could almost read the thoughts of people.

However in the last act of Shakespeare's work, as we approach the climax of the play, Othello supplies a completely different account of the strawberry spotted cloth, referring to it as:

...An antique token my father gave my mother.

This contradiction in the provenance of the handkerchief suggested to me that neither narrative likely contained the entire truth of the matter.

What also fascinated me was why absolutely everyone who touched the handkerchief in Shakespeare's play came to harm. Was there magic or malice woven into the web of that cloth? Moreover, who exactly would have placed it there, and why?

I often refer to Harlem Duet as a rhapsodic blues tragedy, in that it uses a blues aesthetic as a structural guide. The blues is a true art form, "It can be very profound. It tells the truth, but it's got a special sound, too, a special feeling," as Robert Switzer insists in his essay, "Signifying the Blues," "...a feeling... that can come upon you, that can come 'falling down like rain.'" Blues songs have got to have that feeling in them because you can't play the blues right unless you feel them. You can't share that feeling unless you feel it yourself.

As such, Harlem Duet emerges as a 7 stanza blues told in two acts. Using linear and non-linear narrative structures, the play embraces discernible blues qualities that assert tendencies of "antiphonal structures" (that is call and response), repetition, syncopation, fragmentation, solos, polyrhythmic improvisation, percussive melodies, hollers, scatting, ring shouts, and cyclicality.

21 years ago when Nightwood Theatre premiered Harlem Duet at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, an audience member came up to me to tell me how much she had loved the play. She then added, "This is not a Black play. This is a human play." Why would she believe that there was a difference? Aren't all Black experiences, human experiences? Aren't all Black plays, human plays?

Djanet Sears - September 2018

Productions

Harlem Duet was first produced by Nightwood Theatre in 1997 at Toronto's Annex Theatre.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Sears directed a production of the play in 2002 at Blue Heron Arts Centre in New York City.^[9]

The 2006 production at the Stratford Festival was the festival's first work by an African-Canadian playwright, and also the first to be directed by a black woman.^[10]

Harlem Duet was performed in the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto from September 18 to October 28 as part of their 2018-2019 season.

The Crane Creations Theatre Company led a Play Date event of Harlem Duet in January, 2022. This monthly play reading event is meant to raise awareness and appreciation of playwrights and playwrighting from around the world. Theatre artists held conversations about the themes, style, form, and related current world issues to the play.

Related Research Articles

Othello is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cyprus, a possession of the Venetian Republic since 1489. The port city of Famagusta finally fell to the Ottomans in 1571 after a protracted siege. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago. Othello is a Moorish military commander who was serving as a general of the Venetian army in defence of Cyprus against invasion by Ottoman Turks. He has recently married Desdemona, a beautiful and wealthy Venetian lady much younger than himself, against the wishes of her father. Iago is Othello's malevolent ensign, who maliciously stokes his master's jealousy until the usually stoic Moor kills his beloved wife in a fit of blind rage. Due to its enduring themes of passion, jealousy, and race, Othello is still topical and popular and is widely performed, with numerous adaptations.

Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello. Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago hates Othello and devises a plan to destroy him by making him believe that Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio.

Desdemona is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello. Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian military prodigy. When her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him. There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign Iago into believing she is an adulteress, and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Canada</span> Canadas contemporary theatre

Canada's contemporary theatre reflects a rich diversity of regional and cultural identities. Since the late 1960s, there has been a concerted effort to develop the voice of the 'Canadian playwright', which is reflected in the nationally focused programming of many of the country's theatres. Within this 'Canadian voice' are a plurality of perspectives - that of the First Nations, new immigrants, French Canadians, sexual minorities, etc. - and a multitude of theatre companies have been created to specifically service and support these voices.

Djanet Sears is a Canadian playwright, actor and director, nationally recognized for her work in African-Canadian theatre. Sears has many credits in writing and editing highly acclaimed dramas such as Afrika Solo, the first stage play to be written by a Canadian woman of African descent; its sequel Harlem Duet; and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. The complexities of intersecting identities of race, and gender are central themes in her works, as well as inclusion of songs, rhythm, and choruses shaped from West-African traditions. She is also passionate about "the preservation of Black theatre history," and involved the creation of organizations like Obsidian Theatre, and AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival.

Othello is a 1965 film based on the National Theatre Company's staging of Shakespeare's Othello (1964-1966) staged by John Dexter. Directed by Stuart Burge, the film stars Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, and Frank Finlay, who all received Oscar nominations, and provided film debuts for both Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.

Alison Sealy-Smith is a Barbados-born Canadian actress best known for her role as Storm in various Marvel animated TV series.

Goodnight Desdemona is a 1988 comedic play by Ann-Marie MacDonald in which Constance Ledbelly, a young English literature professor from Queen's University, goes on a subconscious journey of self-discovery.

Emilia is a character in the tragedy Othello by William Shakespeare. The character's origin is traced to the 1565 tale, "Un capitano Moro" from Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's Gli Hecatommithi. There, the character is described as young and virtuous, is referred to simply as the ensign's wife, and becomes Desdemona's companion in Cyprus. In Shakespeare, she is named Emilia, is the wife of Othello's ensign, Iago, and is an attendant to Othello's wife, Desdemona. While considered a minor character in the drama, she has been portrayed by several notable actresses on film, with Joyce Redman receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance.

Bianca is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello (c. 1601–1604). She is Cassio's jealous lover. Despite her brief appearance on stage, Bianca plays a significant role in the progress of Iago's scheme to make Othello believe that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him with Cassio. Bianca is traditionally regarded as a courtesan, although this occupation is not specifically designated in the drama. The character was occasionally cut from performances in the 19th century on moral grounds. Bianca is not to be confused with Bianca Minola in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello. The character's origin is traced to the tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor.

Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' original intention, Nightwood Theatre has become known for producing feminist works. Some of Nightwood's most famous productions include This is For You, Anna (1983) and Good Night Desdemona (1988). Nightwood hosts several annual events including FemCab, the Hysteria Festival, and Groundswell Festival which features readings from participants of Nightwood's Write from the Hip playwright development program.

Catch My Soul is a rock musical produced by Jack Good, loosely adapted from Shakespeare's Othello. The character of Iago had originally been played by Jerry Lee Lewis in the US production which had closed in 1968. The UK production of the show was a showcase for the talents of Lance LeGault, P. P. Arnold, P.J. Proby and an introduction to the rock musician Robert Tench and the band Gass.

Othello is a 1990 film produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, starring Ian McKellen, Willard White, Imogen Stubbs, and Zoë Wanamaker. It is based on a stage production of William Shakespeare's play Othello, directed by Trevor Nunn, and later rethought for TV and filmed in a studio. It was shot in a black box theater, so minimal props or scenery were needed, and aired 23 June 1990 on Theatre Night.

Walter Marven Borden, is a Canadian actor, poet and playwright. He is originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. His film and television credits include Nurse.Fighter.Boy, The Event, Gerontophilia, Lexx and Platinum.

Desdemona is a play by Toni Morrison. It was first produced in Vienna in May 2011. The title character of the play is Desdemona, the wife of the title character in Shakespeare's Othello. The 2011 play arose from a collaboration between Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and musician Rokia Traoré. About a decade earlier, Morrison and Sellars had disagreed about Shakespeare’s play, which Sellars detested but Morrison valued. They agreed that Sellars would stage “Othello” and Morrison would respond to in another way, resulting in her Desdemona.

The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God is a drama written and produced by Canadian playwright Djanet Sears. The production ran from October 2003-March 2004, co-produced by Obsidian Theatre and Nightwood Theatre, and was reprised in 2015 at the National Arts Centre and Centaur Theatre. A print version of this play was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2003.

In addition to its appearance in the theatre, the character of Othello from the tragic play by William Shakespeare has appeared in many examples in art and culture since being authored by Shakespeare in the early 16th century.

Othello is Liz White's 1980 dramatic adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello. An all black cast and crew, including actor Yaphet Kotto, created the film.

Diane Roberts is an interdisciplinary theatre creator. Roberts was a founding member of Obsidian Theatre. Roberts was an artistic co-director of Nightwood Theatre, the artistic director of Urban Ink Productions, and a co-founder and artistic director of Boldskool Productions. She is the creator of the Arrivals Legacy Project.

References

↑ Harlem Duet, Djanet Sears, 1997, Nightwood Theatre, Toronto
↑ Canada Council For The Arts. "Cumulative List Of Governor General's Award Winners" (PDF). GGBooks. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
↑ "The Chalmers awards for creativity and excellence in theatre". Ontario Council For The Arts. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
↑ Gruber, Elizabeth (2008). "Practical Magic: Empathy and Alienation inHarlem Duet". Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory. 19 (4): 346–366. doi:10.1080/10436920802519928. S2CID 143900588.
↑ Louise, Harrington (1 May 2007). "'Excuse Me While I Turn This Upside-Down': Three Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare". British Journal of Canadian Studies. 20 (1): 123. doi:10.3828/bjcs.20.1.6.
↑ "Production History - Nightwood Theatre". www.nightwoodtheatre.net. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
↑ "Harlem Duet at NightwoodTheatre". www.stage-door.org. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
↑ Primeau, Joan (11 April 1997). "This weekend in T.O.". ProQuest 437657777.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
↑ Bruckner, D. J. R. (21 November 2002). "THEATER IN REVIEW; A Tortured Duet With History". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
↑ "Review - Harlem Duet - Stratford Festival - Christopher Hoile". www.stage-door.com. Retrieved 22 March 2017.

Sources

Haven, Cynthia (14 May 2008). "Award-winning play Harlem Duet tells story of modern Othello". Stanford University. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
Friedlander, Mira (11 May 1997). "Review: 'Harlem Duet'". Variety. Retrieved 5 May 2017.

v t e Winners of the Governor General's Award for English-language drama
1980s	Sharon Pollock, Blood Relations (1981) John Gray, Billy Bishop Goes to War (1982) Anne Chislett, Quiet in the Land (1983) Judith Thompson, White Biting Dog (1984) George F. Walker, Criminals in Love (1985) Sharon Pollock, Doc (1986) John Krizanc, Prague (1987) George F. Walker, Nothing Sacred (1988) Judith Thompson, The Other Side of the Dark (1989)
1990s	Ann-Marie MacDonald, Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (1990) Joan MacLeod, Amigo's Blue Guitar (1991) John Mighton, Possible Worlds and A Short History of Night (1992) Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas (1993) Morris Panych, The Ends of the Earth (1994) Jason Sherman, Three in the Back, Two in the Head (1995) Colleen Wagner, The Monument (1996) Ian Ross, fareWel (1997) Djanet Sears, Harlem Duet (1998) Michael Healey, The Drawer Boy (1999)
2000s	Timothy Findley, Elizabeth Rex (2000) Kent Stetson, The Harps of God (2001) Kevin Kerr, Unity (1918) (2002) Vern Thiessen, Einstein's Gift (2003) Morris Panych, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl (2004) John Mighton, Half Life (2005) Daniel MacIvor, I Still Love You (2006) Colleen Murphy, The December Man (2007) Catherine Banks, Bone Cage (2008) Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes (2009)
2010s	Robert Chafe, Afterimage (2010) Erin Shields, If We Were Birds (2011) Catherine Banks, It Is Solved by Walking (2012) Nicolas Billon, Fault Lines: Three Plays (2013) Jordan Tannahill, Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays (2014) David Yee, carried away on the crest of a wave (2015) Colleen Murphy, Pig Girl (2016) Hiro Kanagawa, Indian Arm (2017) Jordan Tannahill, Botticelli in the Fire and Sunday in Sodom (2018) Amanda Parris, Other Side of the Game (2019)
2020s	Kim Senklip Harvey, Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story (2020) Hannah Moscovitch, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (2021) Dorothy Dittrich, The Piano Teacher: A Healing Key (2022)