Harlem Duet

Harlem Duet
Written byDjanet Sears
CharactersBillie
Mona
Othello
Magi (The Landlady)
Amah (Billie's sister-in-law)
Canada (Billie's father)
Date premiered1997
Place premieredNightwood Theatre in Toronto
Original languageEnglish
SettingHarlem (1928)
Harlem (Present)
Harlem (1860)

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.

Sears received the Governor General's Award[2] for Best New Play and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award[3] for Harlem Duet.

  1. ^ Harlem Duet, Djanet Sears, 1997, Nightwood Theatre, Toronto
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "The Chalmers awards for creativity and excellence in theatre". Ontario Council For The Arts. Retrieved 30 March 2017.