Harlem Duet

When She repeats Her actions with the white handkerchief as seen in the Prologue, the gesture signals that something amiss is on the horizon. The handkerchief serves as a unifying motif, tying together the play’s three time periods and symbolizing The Continuity of Black History.

The lines from Shakespeare’s Othello that He chooses to recite as he wipes makeup from His face are significant, as they relate to Othello’s beauty being rooted in his virtue and not his looks since, as a Black man, he is considered unattractive. The character He feels similarly dismissed because of his race, being relegated to degrading, stereotyped stage roles. He tells Her that His dream is to play classic roles, but She dashes his dreams by reminding him that He is a minstrel. Her actions reflect the sentiments of present-day Othello in Act I, Scene 7, who tells Billie that Black women are not supportive of their spouses. He then reveals that Mona, their white director, has cast him as Pericles, Prince of Tyre. His claims that Mona sees his gift also point to present-day Othello’s lament. He begins to describe Mona in language derived from Othello’s description of Desdemona in Othello, fueling Her jealousy. As Othello killed Desdemona in a fit of jealous madness, so She kills Him.

Scene 7 returns to the present, depicting Billie’s final descent. Step by step, she loses control of herself until all the situations, influences, and memories converge, and she relives the happy beginning that sets her tragic end into motion.

Before this happens, Billie and Magi discuss how Billie is consumed with anger at white people. She no longer has any objectivity, as she sees them through a singular lens. Billie’s plight suggests that Racial Equality and the American Dream may be permanently out of reach for her. White people, but specifically Mona, have robbed her of her dreams. Her nightmarish breakdown is something of a culmination of what she and her precursors in the play experience: the loss of their loves and the disintegration of their futures due to the presence of a white woman. In the dream sequence, a younger Billie and Othello speak the same words that He and She did when they planned their exodus to Canada in 1860. They voice hopes for children and a house in the country, and they seal their commitment by jumping a broom—a wedding ritual among Black couples that dates back to the days of the African slave trade.

The Othello in the flashback is more attuned to his heritage than the one in 1997. He enters the apartment wearing a dashiki and initiates jumping the broom. He even references the illegality of marriages among enslaved people, telling Billie that because they couldn’t buy rings, brooms were much more significant. But hints of the ambitious Othello of the future are present as well. When Billie asks him if he loves the apartment and, in fact, Harlem, he answers with “I love you” (106). He also tells Billie that they could buy a house in Harlem, but she refuses to do so until they are both finished with graduate school. Most significantly, Othello wonders if his colleagues, Chris Yago and Mona, will “feel uncomfortable coming up here” (106), revealing his insecurities about being Black in a predominantly white professional environment.

Canada lives up to his promise to help Billie heal. His actions reflect the mission of the Million Man March that opens the scene. Othello’s arrival to retrieve his handkerchief allows Canada to speak his piece, albeit via metaphor, about how Othello has treated his daughter. The metaphor of refined sugar as a dangerous alternative to molasses, honey, or cane sugar juice may refer to Othello’s choice of a white woman over a woman of color; however, an even more compelling explanation is the danger of choosing the inauthentic over the authentic. The sweeteners Canada holds in esteem are natural and flavorful, while refined sugar is processed and stripped of all its benefits. While it tastes sweet, it is deceptively risky. The same holds true for living an inauthentic life.

Finally, Othello’s exit line, “Chris Yago, please” (112), foreshadows future problems, as Iago (from whose name Chris’s is borrowed) was the mastermind behind the downfall of Shakespeare’s Othello. Reaching out to Chris does not bode well.

In Scene 9, which takes place in 1928, He is applying black greasepaint as he recites a complex and meaningful passage from Othello. The lines refer to Othello’s belief that he has won the heart of Desdemona. Through his stories and a bit of magic, Desdemona fell in love with him and saw him beyond color or race. This aligns with the postures of all the central male characters in the play, as each felt manly, wanted, and most importantly, needed when they were with the white women in their lives. The irony in this scene, however, is that a Black man is applying yet another layer of blackness to his face and has yet to break out from the role—or status—of a minstrel performer. He is playing the same part to a greater extent.

While she is obviously under the care of a psychiatric team, Billie shows signs of healing—she is dancing, singing, and voicing a desire to see her niece Jenny very soon. She also takes Amah’s suggestion to forgive into consideration and tries to initiate that process as well.

Billie speaks of a dream she had about her doctor, Lucinda. While she was asking Lucinda a question, Lucinda was unresponsive, and her eyes were flashing blue. The dream’s meaning may be twofold: First, it represents Billie’s belief that white people cannot truly understand or even process her plight, as they see life through a blue-eyed prism; and second, the flashing blue lights are reminiscent of police car headlights. The fact that the doctor doesn’t respond as her eyes continually flash may signify the disparity of how Black populations are treated by law enforcement versus their white counterparts. The uncommunicative white doctor with flashing blue eyes represents the wall that separates the Black population from the opportunity for true justice under the law.

Amah’s statement, “Some of us spend our entire lives making our own shackles” (115), is important, as it applies not only to Billie but to everyone. Here, however, it implies that Billie must take some of the responsibility for her condition and decide to heal.

The play ends with Billie sitting with her father as he holds her hand in his. He has decided to stay in Harlem to contribute to her recovery and reestablish his relationship with his family. His decision breaks the pattern of betrayal that exists among the three Othellos and represents a much-needed new beginning.