Funnyhouse of a Negro

Funnyhouse of a Negro
Written byAdrienne Kennedy
Characters
  • Sarah
  • Duchess of Hapsburg
  • Queen Victoria Regina
  • Jesus
  • Patrice Lumumba
  • Sarah's Landlady
  • Raymond
  • The Mother
Date premieredJanuary 14, 1964; 60 years ago (1964-01-14)
Place premieredEast End Theater, NYC
Original languageEnglish
GenreDrama, one-act play

Funnyhouse of a Negro is a one-act play by Adrienne Kennedy. The play opened off-Broadway in 1964 and won the Obie Award for Distinguished Play.[1] The play shared this award with Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, and was influenced by her radical imagination; critics have read it in conversation with both the Black Arts Movement and the Theater of the Absurd.[2] While the play has been produced on stage numerous times, it has been more frequently studied in academic settings than it has been produced.[3]

  1. ^ "1964 Award Winners". Village Voice. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  2. ^ Hill, Errol, and James Vernon Hatch. A History of African-American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.
  3. ^ Curb, Rosemary (May 1980). "Fragmented Selves in Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro and The Owl Answers". Theatre Journal. 32 (2): 180–195. doi:10.2307/3207111. JSTOR 3207111.