harlem duet Dire c t o r ’ s No te s As a young Black theatre student, eagerly searching for plays that spoke to my cultural identity, Djanet Sears was one of the first Black Canadian playwrights I discovered. At that moment, I fell in love with her writing and her gorgeous storytelling about people who looked like me – and consequently I devoured everything “Djanet Sears” that I could get my hands on! To see yourself in plays and in the characters on stage is essential for all theatregoers, and I am so proud to bring this story and these complicated, full Black characters to life on the Bard stage, in this very special 25th anniversary of Harlem Duet!
Cover of Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears, first published in 1997 by Scirocco Drama
me, telling stories about me, my family, my friends, my community. For most people of European descent, this is a privilege they take for granted.”
Djanet so perfectly described her play as “a rhapsodic blues tragedy, exploring the effects of race and sex on the lives of people of African descent. It is a tale of love. A tale of Othello and his first wife, Billie. Set in 1860, 1928 and contemporary Harlem at the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Boulevards.”
Please join me in celebrating this iconic play – and all the talented theatre artists gathered to bring the best of themselves to this work in such a deep and brave way. Cherissa Richards, Director | April 2022
This story is timeless. It is a story about love and betrayal and more specifically it is a story centred on Blackness. Stories about Blackness, Black love, Black hurt, Black triumphs, Black lives, have been historically overlooked and underproduced in our Canadian theatrical landscape. And while this play is centred in Blackness, it is also universal. By opening up our scope to other cultures, other storytelling – we learn about ourselves and connect as humans though our differences.
ABOUT CHERISSA RICHARDS This is Cherissa’s second season at Bard on the Beach (Timon of Athens dir. Meg Roe, 2018, Assistant Director). She has done directing apprentice programs at Bard on the Beach, the Shaw Festival and the Stratford Festival. Directing credits: The Power of Harriet T (Manitoba Theatre for Young People); The Game (Sarasvàti); VOICE (Prairie Theatre Exchange); Meet Me At Dawn (Theatre By The River); and The Last days of Judas Iscariot (Canadian College of Performing Arts). Directing Residency: National Theatre School of Canada, 2021. Directing Fellowship: This Gen-Why Not Theatre, 2021. RBC Rising Star Emerging Director Prize: Crow's Theatre, 2021.
In this story we see Billie fighting to find a way to end the cycle of generational trauma by invoking traditional black magic. We join Billie on her journey through the pain of Othello’s betrayal and subsequent devolution of her mental health. In Djanet Sears’ forward to this play she writes,
“I have a dream. A dream that one day in the city where I live, at any given time of the year, I will be able to find at least one play that is filled with people who look like 21
