Skin Deep, a Self-Revealing Act: Monologue, Monodrama, and Mixedness in the Work of SuAndi and Mojisola Adebayo

Osborne, Deirdre. 2013. Skin Deep, a Self-Revealing Act: Monologue, Monodrama, and Mixedness in the Work of SuAndi and Mojisola Adebayo. Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, 1(1), pp. 54-69. ISSN 2195-0164 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Notably, a number of dramatic monologues and monodramas written and performed by black British women of multi-ethnic heritage employ polyphonic and transgeneric techniques to articulate perspectives and experiences of mixedness. SuAndi’s monologue “Passing” (1990) and the monodramas The Story of M (2002) by SuAndi and Moj of the Antarctic (2008) by Mojisola Adebayo loosen perceptions of racial and chromatic determiners as not fixed, but mixed. The features of their work create cross-talk between theatre and spoken word poetry, placing mixed experiences at the heart of theatre performance. This article gives recognition to the power of women as solo performers and the kinds of herstories that are restored to sociocultural and, by extension, theatre histories through the liveness of women who perform their own work and the revisions they forge in terms of uses of genre, audience assumptions, casting, and critical receptions. From positions of indigenous cultural and racial heterogeneity, SuAndi’s and Adebayo’s work adds a further complexity to conceptions of diasporic heritage within Britain’s national story, one where claiming family roots is represented as problematic in the eyes of the beholder (surrounding society) but celebrated through their individual acts of cultural reclamation and artistic validation.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1515/jcde-2013-0006

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Theatre and Performance (TAP)

Dates:

DateEvent
2013Published

Item ID:

9372

Date Deposited:

30 Oct 2013 13:31

Last Modified:

03 Jul 2017 11:34

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9372

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