In the Continuum puts a human face on the devastating impact of AIDS in Africa and America through the lives of two unforgettably courageous women. Living worlds apart, one in South Central LA and the other in Zimbabwe, each experiences a kaleidoscopic weekend of life-changing revelations in this story of parallel denials and self-discoveries.

In the Continuum

Literature & Fiction

Gurira, Danai

Salter, Nikkole

Dramas & Plays

Concord Theatricals

It's winter in Minnesota, and a Zimbabwean family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, a first-generation American. But when the bride insists on observing a traditional African custom, it opens a deep rift in the household. Rowdy and affectionate, Familiar pitches tradition against assimilation, drawing a loving portrait of a family: the customs they keep, and the secrets they bury.

Familiar

 “[Eclipsed is] a surprisingly vivacious portrait of helplessness, of the entirely human impulse to adapt, to get by even when there's little hope life will get better.”—Washington Post “Eclipsed depicts the harsh realities of women’s lives in a strife-torn African country with both a clear eye and a palpable empathy.”—New York Times Four women in Liberia struggle to survive conditions on a rebel army base. Held as the concubines of a warlord, each “wife” must find her own means of coping amidst a situation that appears hopeless. With frail, fractured identities born from an ongoing, senseless civil war, the women build their own contained world to guard against the chaos outside. This enthralling work from award-winning playwright and actress Gurira demonstrates the human capacity to endure, even in the most desolate of circumstances. Danai Gurira’s other plays include Familiar and In the Continuum, written for World AIDS Day in December 2011, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Nikkole Salter. For In the Continuum, she was awarded an Obie Award, Outer Critics' Circle Award, and a Helen Hayes Award for her performance. She received a Whiting Writer’s Award in 2012. She is best known for her role as Michonne in the hit television series, The Walking Dead.

Eclipsed

Dramatist's Play Service

A young Shona girl escapes an arranged marriage by converting to Christianity, becoming a servant and student to an African Evangelical. As anti-European sentiments spread throughout the native population, she is forced to choose between her family's traditions and her newfound faith.

The Convert (Modern Plays, 13)

Methuen Drama

'Post-black' refers to an emerging trend within black arts to find new and multiple expressions of blackness, unburdened by the social and cultural expectations of blackness of the past and moving beyond the conventional binary of black and white. 
Reflecting this multiplicity of perspectives, the plays in this collection explode the traditional ways of representing black families on the American stage, and create new means to consider the interplay of race, with questions of class, gender, and sexuality. They engage and critique current definitions of black and African-American identity, as well as previous limitations placed on what constitutes blackness and black theatre.
Written by the emerging stars of American theatre such as Eisa Davis and Marcus Gardley, the plays explore themes as varied as family and individuality, alienation and gentrification, and reconciliation and belonging. They demonstrate a wide-range of formal and structural innovations for the American theatre, and reflect the important ways in which contemporary playwrights are expanding the American dramatic canon with new and diverse means of representation. 
Edited by two leading US scholars in black drama, Harry J. Elam Jr (Stanford) and Douglas A. Jones Jr (Princeton), this cutting edge anthology gathers together some of the most exciting new American plays, selected by a rigorous academic backbone and explored in depth by supporting critical material.

The Methuen Drama Book of Post-Black Plays: Bulrusher; Good Goods; The Shipment; Satellites; And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi; Antebellum; In the Continuum; Black Diamond (Play Anthologies)

Anderson, Christina

O'Hara, Robert

Lee, Young Jean

Davis, Eisa

Gardley, Marcus

Brooks, J. Nicole

Son, Diana

“[Eclipsed is] a surprisingly vivacious portrait of helplessness, of the entirely human impulse to adapt, to get by even when there's little hope life will get better.”—Washington Post 
“Eclipsed depicts the harsh realities of women’s lives in a strife-torn African country with both a clear eye and a palpable empathy.”—New York Times 
Four women in Liberia struggle to survive conditions on a rebel army base. Held as the concubines of a warlord, each “wife” must find her own means of coping amidst a situation that appears hopeless. With frail, fractured identities born from an ongoing, senseless civil war, the women build their own contained world to guard against the chaos outside. This enthralling work from award-winning playwright and actress Gurira demonstrates the human capacity to endure, even in the most desolate of circumstances. 
Danai Gurira’s other plays include Familiar and In the Continuum, written for World AIDS Day in December 2011, which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Nikkole Salter. For In the Continuum, she was awarded an Obie Award, Outer Critics' Circle Award, and a Helen Hayes Award for her performance. She received a Whiting Writer’s Award in 2012. She is best known for her role as Michonne in the hit television series, The Walking Dead.

Theatre Communications Group

“Soul-searing...Eclipsed shines with a compassion that makes us see beyond the suffering to the indomitable humanity of its characters.” Charles Isherwood, New York Times
 “A major achievement...Eclipsed is shattering in part because, while the Liberian Civil War finally ended, the struggle continues in a ravished human landscape. We can do little more than bear witness—something this miraculous play helps boldly to accomplish.” Jeremy Gerard, Deadline
 “Danai Gurira’s remarkable play is an epic of war and suffering... painted with warmth, humor and rage...A considerable work of art.” Stewart Pringle, Time Out London
 “It’s a common lament that there are no good roles for women. But Danai Gurira has packed this harrowing drama with five of them.” Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News
 Amid the chaos of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a fragile community—until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Drawing on reserves of wit and compassion, Eclipsed reveals distinct women who must discover their own means of survival in this chilling and humanizing story of transformation and renewal in a hostile world of horrors not of their own making.
 Danai Gurira is an award-winning Zimbabwean American actor and playwright. Her plays include In the Continuum, The Convert, Familiar and Eclipsed. As an actor, she is best known for her role as Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead. She is the co-founder of Almasi Collaborative Arts, and founder LOVE OUR GIRLS: a campaign bringing awareness to injustices faced by women and girls throughout the world. (Visit: logpledge.org)

Eclipsed (Revised TCG Edition)

Parenting & Relationships

While a Zimbabwean family plans for their daughter's wedding in Minnesota, fractures appear as African traditions clash with American cultural norms. Danai Gurira's new play Familiar brims with dramatic reveals and comedic tensions throughout while astutely tackling the complexities of immigration, assimilation, and race -- and asking whether we can ever really shed our cultural roots.

Familiar (TCG Edition)

Civil war is raging in Liberia.  Four young women - members of the rebel army - are struggling to survive. Yet sometimes, the greatest threat comes not from the enemy's guns, but from the brutality of those on your own side. With the arrival of a new girl, who can read, and an old one, who can kill, how might this transform the future of this hard-bitten sisterhood?

Oberon Books Ltd

A new play from the writer of Eclipsed, which transferred to Broadway and starred Lupita Nyong'o

The Convert (Oberon Modern Plays)

Oberon Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gurira, Danai. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gurira, Danai

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gurira, Danai. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In the Continuum

Familiar

Eclipsed

The Convert (Modern Plays, 13)

The Methuen Drama Book of Post-Black Plays: Bulrusher; Good Goods; The Shipment; Satellites; And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi; Antebellum; In the Continuum; Black Diamond (Play Anthologies)

Eclipsed

Eclipsed (Revised TCG Edition)

Familiar (TCG Edition)

Eclipsed

The Convert (Oberon Modern Plays)