Marlene Moser, Brock U
Constructions of Identity in Afrika Solo and Harlem Duet

In Afrika Solo and Harlem Duet, Djanet Sears uses popular culture, music, and literature as ways of situating the identities of her characters. Afrika Solo affirms and asserts an identity for its main character by re-citing these sources; personal reminiscences are intermingled with references to mainstream movie and television icons in a constant process of re-framing. Harlem Duet, on the other hand, undermines stability in identity. A "prelude" to Shakespeare's Othello, the play imagines Sybil (Billie) as Othello's first wife whom Othello rejects for a white woman, Mona. Although a complex soundscape of jazz, blues and speeches from black activists frames the scenes, the Shakespearean overlay implies the restrictions of the white imagination. The main character descends into disintegrative madness. This paper will explore the opposing versions of identity in these two plays through the audience/stage dynamics that are invoked. In Afrika Solo, Sears gently reworks and then re-iterates roles, minimizing the tension the audience undergoes by taking them on a comic journey that ends in an affirmation of the self. Harlem Duet, on the other hand, working in the tragic vein, intentionally creates uncomfortable moments of ambiguity and contradiction that challenge subjectivity. The conclusion of this paper will address the movements from comedy to tragedy, and from solo to duet, that accompany the processes of affirmation and fragmentation in these two plays.