An Octoroon

An Octoroon is a reworking of Dion Boucicault's 1859 melodrama The Octoroon. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the original, which was itself one of the most popular stage works of the antebellum era, to interrogate how nineteenth-century theater handled race and identity.

The production uses racial masquerade—including blackface, whiteface, and redface—as deliberate metatheatrical commentary to expose the artifice of racial categories on stage. Jacobs-Jenkins has actors play roles across racial lines, forcing the audience to confront the theatrical conventions around representing race.

An Octoroon was first produced in 2014. Jacobs-Jenkins's play reimagines Boucicault's original through metatheatrical devices including role doubling and disruptions of theatrical convention.

While Boucicault's 1859 melodrama tells the tragic story of a mixed-race woman in a straightforward narrative mode, Jacobs-Jenkins's version layers metatheatrical commentary, role doubling, and deliberate breaks in convention to interrogate the original's racial politics. The modern play draws attention to its own theatricality rather than presenting a seamless melodrama.