Funnyhouse Of A Negro
by Adrienne Kennedy

Name: Funnyhouse Of A Negro
Brand: Adrienne Kennedy
SKU: 9780573621666
Rating: 3.7 (446 reviews)

Off-Broadway

Funnyhouse Of A Negro Book Cover — Funnyhouse Of A Negro Cover

Highlights

Medium Cast

Female

Male

One Act40 minsPresent DayMulticultural CastingStrong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)Interior SetElaborate/High-Volume CostumesAmerican

Awards & Recognition

Obie Award

Winner! 1964 Obie Award, Distinguished Play Winner! 2008 Obie Award, Lifetime Achievement

What readers are saying

Readers find 'Funnyhouse Of A Negro' to be a complex and powerful exploration of race and identity. Many appreciate its inventive structure and poetic language, although some feel that the play is best experienced live rather than through reading. The themes of absurdity and internal struggle resonate deeply, making it a thought-provoking work. However, a few readers express confusion over its abstract nature when read alone.

Inventive structure and poetic languagePowerful exploration of raceThought-provoking themesUnique approach to identityBest experienced live rather than read

Synopsis

"Drama / 3m, 5f / wing and drop"--Back cover.

Press Reviews

"Funnyhouse of a Negro, Adrienne Kennedy’s 1964 one-act play set, essentially, inside the head of a disturbed young black woman named Sarah, catches perfectly that moment in time when the struggle could have gone either way: black identity might have been erased, or it might have reasserted itself."
— The New York Times

"I bet you won’t see anything so fearlessly weird and original all year. I don’t know if Beyoncé is familiar with Kennedy’s work, but Funnyhouse plays like a hard-core retort to the self-empowerment poetics of Lemonade. That Funnyhouse came half a century earlier hardly even matters."
— TimeOut New York

"It was so thrilling for me to experience the lyrical dialogue of Adrienne Kennedy, whom I’d known only through reading."
— Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Duchess Of Hapsburg one of her selves	female	—	one of her selves
Queen Victoria Regina one of her selves	female	—	one of her selves
Jesus one of her selves	female	—	one of her selves
Patrice Lumumba one of her selves	female	—	one of her selves
Sarah’S Landlady Funnyhouse lady	female	—	Funnyhouse lady
Raymond Funnyhouse man	—	—	Funnyhouse man
The Mother	—	—	—
Negro-Sarah	—	—	—