Winter 2025

Daly and Monks introduce this issue on Boucicault’s The Octoroon by reflecting on the theme of debt.

Designing An Octoroon

Georgia Lowe reflects on designing An Octoroon for the Orange Tree Theatre and the National Theatre in London in 2017.

Affects

Short essays by Eltis, McNulty and Schweitzer on the sensations provoked by Boucicault’s melodrama, and Jacobs-Jenkins’ investigation of their legacies and politics.

Reception and Afterlives

Short essays by Riordan, Chen and Lonergan investigating the endings and afterlives of The/An Octoroon.

Images

Dorney, Hofer-Robinson, Hull, Murphy, Novak and Williams consider the significance of makeup, photography and tableaux in the plays’ representation of race.

Letters

Borelli, West-Agboola and Adebayo exchange letters reflecting on the potency of these plays for how we might live now.