Meet The Playwright Who's Blowing Up Broadway

With two hit plays under his belt at age 29, JEREMY O. HARRIS writes provocative shows that have audiences freaking out—in every sense.

- Jaya Saxena

PLAYWRIGHTS RARELY become household names. But there’s a good chance Jeremy O. Harris could be on his way to that kind of fame. He’s 29 and still a student at the Yale School of Drama, but his Off-Broadway debut, the provocative Slave Play, opened last fall in New York to the kind of rapturous attention that a writer would happily wait a lifetime for. He quickly followed it up in March with a dazzling new production called “Daddy” and is now being hailed as one of the most exciting new voices, theatrical or otherwise, of his generation.

Set on an American plantation in the Old South, Slave Play is a raw exploration of race and sex and features an utterly disorienting twist. The play asks viewers (specifically white straight viewers) to stew in their own privilege and good intentions. It assaults assumptions, yes, but also challenges the pleasant norms of the theater going experience. For Harris, that’s the point.