Abstract
Playwright-director Robert O’Hara has demonstrated a flair for crafting irreverent and formally inventive theatrical events since presenting his drama Insurrection: Holding History at the Public Theater in 1996. Providing analytic overviews of three of O’Hara’s most potent though under-examined plays—Antebellum, Bootycandy, and Barbecue—this chapter examines the ways the theatre maker employs “defamiliarizing dramaturgical strategies” in his work to activate critical debate and elicit fresh insights about matters of race, sex, sexuality, family, history, and Black queer identity.