Harlem Duet

David E. Kemp is a drama professor at Queen’s University and the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Djanet Sears is a Toronto playwright, director, and actor. She is also
the author of the highly acclaimed African Solo, which has toured
extensively and was broadcast on CBC Radio’s Morningside.

Harlem Duet, which Sears has described as a rhapsodic blues tragedy,
tells the story of Othello and his first wife, Billie (as such, it is a
“prequel” to Shakespeare’s play). Set in 1860, in 1920, and in
contemporary Harlem, at the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
boulevards, the play is both a public and personal exorcism. It explores
Billie’s attempts to come to terms with her husband’s betrayal and
at the same time explores the author’s attempts to come to terms with
the character of Othello, which for much of this century was played by a
white actor in blackface.

One of Sears’s objectives in writing this play was to create for
Canadians of African descent a history and mythology that will be
relevant for the new millennium. Harlem Duet is driven by a personal
commitment and vision that combines humor, rage, compassion, and
understanding. Through her plays, Sears encapsulates the frustrations,
triumphs, compulsions, and dreams of a whole generation of Canadians of
African descent. Hers is a voice that demands to be heard.