Four Contemporary American Playwrights: Exploring Identity

The fourth in a series of books exploring the careers of 28 contemporary American playwrights, this book covers the work of four male writers, Lucas Hnath, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Stephen Karam and Tarell Alvin McCraney.

The dramatic strategies of these award-winning playwrights range widely in styles and approach. Christopher Bigsby interweaves critical analysis of their work with biographical information, contemporary responses and the writers’ own comments, drawn from interviews.

At a time when the question of identity is central in America, at both a personal and national level, how far do these playwrights see this as central or incidental to their work? Bigsby argues that Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’ work often asks to what extent race is a construct, in work including neighbors, An Octoroon and Appropriate, while stepping away from race in Everybody. Tarell Alvin McCraney, conscious that being labelled as gay or black can influence the reception of his work, nonetheless embraces both in The Brothers Size, Choir Boy, Wig Out and his Oscar-winning film Moonlight.

If Stephen Karam, from a Lebanese-American family, engages with gay characters in Speech and Debate and The Humans, this book posits that he is also interested in suffering, something of which he has personal experience. Finally, Lucas Hnath approaches identity in another way, appropriating the lives of real characters, historical and contemporary, inhabiting and deconstructing them.

Christopher Bigsby is Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK.