Funnyhouse of a Negro

by Adrienne Kennedy

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Funnyhouse of a Negro begins with a closed curtain. A wild-haired woman, referred to as the Mother, walks across the stage carrying a bald head in front of her. She mumbles incoherently, seeming to be in a trance.

After she exits, the curtain lifts to reveal the Queen’s chamber, which features a tomb-like bed at the center. In this chamber are two of Sarah’s inner selves: the Duchess of Hapsburg and Queen Victoria.

The women look alike, wearing royal gowns and ghostly masks. When a knocking sound is heard, the Queen suggests it must be her father looking for her. The Duchess remarks that their father is a black man and expresses a desire for his death.

They both voice their grievances about him; the Duchess accuses him of killing their mother. Victoria asserts that he is already dead. The loud knocking then ceases, and the chamber lights go out.

The Mother reappears on stage, still carrying the head. She declares that she was raped by the black man, Sarah’s father, and then vanishes. In another part of the stage, featuring a square wall, Sarah (also known as the Negro) enters. She has a hangman’s rope around her neck, blood on her face, and carries a patch of kinky hair missing from a spot on her head.

Sarah delivers a monologue to the audience, describing her residence in a brownstone in New York City. She professes her admiration for Queen Victoria, recounting conversations with the Queen in which she states that being black is undesirable.

Sarah also shares details of her background, including her education, passion for poetry, and her aspiration to live in a room filled with European antiques. She makes it clear that she wants to surround herself with elements of the white world to reject her African American heritage. This internalized self-hatred has caused her hair to fall out, leaving her nearly bald. She also mentions her boyfriend, Raymond, a Jewish poet interested in African American culture.

As Sarah continues speaking, her four inner selves gather on stage. In addition to the Queen and the Duchess, a hunchbacked dwarf named Jesus and a black man with a split head named Patrice Lumumba appear.

Sarah claims to have killed her father. Outside her room, in the hallway of the boarding house, the Landlady appears. She informs the audience that Sarah’s father hanged himself in a Harlem hotel when Patrice Lumumba was assassinated. The Landlady describes Sarah’s tendency to hide in her room.

Above Sarah’s room is the funnyhouse, overseen by Raymond, known as the Funnyman. Raymond and the Duchess converse, with the Duchess clinging to Raymond’s leg. She anxiously awaits her father’s arrival from Africa. Raymond confirms that her father is indeed the man who shot himself when Patrice Lumumba was killed.

The Duchess recounts that her father journeyed to Africa as a Christian missionary deep in the jungle. She opens her bag, revealing it is filled with her own hair. She speaks of her father and the assault on her mother. She identifies herself as being caught between her father's darkness and her mother's light. Additionally, the Duchess discloses that her mother is confined in a mental institution.

Patrice Lumumba delivers a monologue to the audience, mentioning that he has also lost his hair. He further describes his mother watching her hair fall out, strand by strand, due to "black diseases." Meanwhile, inside the Queen's chamber, the Queen discovers her hair has fallen out as well. The Duchess attempts to reattach her own hair to her head.

Patrice shares his backstory in a manner similar to Sarah's...

(This entire section contains 1079 words.)

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earlier description: his place of residence, his major in English during college, and his poetry writing. He expresses a desire for white friends to match his room filled with European antiques but admits he will despise them as he despises himself. He also reveals that he struck his father, which led to his hair loss.

Surrounded by her inner selves, Sarah narrates how her paternal grandmother desired her father to become Christ and save his people. Her paternal grandfather, however, believed his race was not worth saving. Sarah's grandparents did not want her father to marry her mother.

When Sarah's parents ventured to Africa as missionaries, her mother fell out of love with her father. Sarah's mother refused physical contact with him, but after he began drinking, he raped her mother, resulting in Sarah's birth. Sarah confesses that she loved her mother more than her father during their time in Africa.

After Sarah's mother's hair started falling out, the family returned to the United States. Sarah recounts that her father felt like a Judas for driving her mother to insanity and once attempted to hang himself in a Harlem hotel.

Inside the Duchess's place, which resembles a ballroom with a chandelier, Jesus and the Duchess converse. Jesus is distressed over losing his hair, and the Duchess reveals that she is also bald. As knocking continues, Jesus and the Duchess try to fix their remaining strands of hair and discuss how their father won't leave them alone.

Outside Sarah's room, the Landlady continues to speak, recounting events from Sarah's father's perspective: he sought Sarah's forgiveness for being black.

Back in the Duchess's place, Jesus and the Duchess have fallen asleep. Jesus awakens and tells God he has tried to escape being black. He then decides to go to Africa and kill Patrice Lumumba.

Following a blackout, the stage transforms into a jungle scene. Sarah’s four inner selves emerge, each adorned with a glowing nimbus. Jesus mentions that he always believed his father was God. The inner selves then recount their desires for their father’s death and reveal that their mother died because she was touched by a black man.

Additionally, the inner selves suspect their father of killing their mother and believe he is also dead. Despite this, he persistently knocks at the door. They describe a moment where he pleads for Sarah's forgiveness, and her mother appears. Sarah strikes him with an ebony hand, and the four selves laugh and cheer triumphantly.

A wall descends, unveiling Sarah’s room. Sarah is found hanging, and her father rushes to her. Outside the room, the Landlady informs Raymond that Sarah has hanged herself, just as her father did when Patrice Lumumba died. Raymond calls Sarah a liar, clarifying that her father is a black doctor married to a white woman.

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