Experience A Queens’ Brawl The Play
A Massively Long Black Tragedy presented by The Black Theater Education Initiative
The year is 2501. Seventeen years ago, Princess Kleopatra’s newborn son was stolen by those she trusted most. For years she has sharpened her grief into a weapon, gathering armies, monsters, and loyal followers for a single purpose: revenge.
“This is a brawl, one to end all brawls. A brawl on fire, and I want all the smoke I’m owed,” Queen Kleopatra
A Queens’ Brawl is a mesmerizing blend of fantasy, magic and poetic storytelling that transforms a grand dystopian world into an intensely human drama. Through unforgettable characters, it explores family, betrayal, grief, revenge, religion, diaspora war, gender expectation and racial identity. At its heart lies an enduring struggle for power and the devastating price of possessing it.
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Timeline Leading Up to the Brawl
The Old World, 195 countries, seven continents, and billions of people, was destroyed in a devastating nuclear conflict known as the White War. The cataclysm ended civilization as it was known, forever transforming the planet and its inhabitants.
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Before the conflict could claim the lives of everyone, people of the black diaspora gathered on a single island, The New World.
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For one hundred years after the White War, the Black people of the island knew peace. The planet recovered, cities rose from the ashes, and hope flourished once more. Yet as prosperity returned, so did humanity's oldest vice, ambition. Black men, consumed by the desire to rule, fractured the land into three great kingdoms: the Highlands, the Midlands, and the Lowlands. From that division, a new era of conflict was born.
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Despite being a monoracial continent, the people of The New World are forbidden from loving anyone beyond the borders of their own kingdom. For generations, the three realms have upheld this law, believing that unity within each kingdom is the only path to peace. Yet fate had other plans.
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The reigning king of the north dies, leaving princess Josephine the throne. Her younger brother Leone is by her side. Her older brother Attacomea is nowhere to be found.
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17 years prior to the brawl, Princess Kleopatra of the Lowlands fell deeply in love with Prince Leone of the Highlands. Their romance defied centuries of tradition and threatened to unravel the fragile balance between the three kingdoms. Hidden deep within The Black Forest, far from the eyes of their kingdoms, they consummated their love, binding their hearts in a union forbidden by both crowns. What they didn’t know was that a Black God had eyes on them in the forest. Kleopatra fell sick, something in the forest touched her spirit.
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Princess Josephine, Prince Leone’s sister received a secret mission from the ancestors: kill her childhood friend, princess Kleopatra. She enlisted her brother’s help and he reluctantly agreed to murder what he thought would soon be the mother of his child.
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Josephine and Leone tried many times to kill Kleopatra but death refused to take her. During their last attempt, Kleopatra murdered the man she once loved.
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Meanwhile in the Midlands, Kenya is appointed queen after her husband the king dies of mysterious causes.
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The Highlands and Lowlands engaged in a brief military conflict before reaching an agreement. Vulnerable and temporarily without power, seconds after she gave birth, Kleopatra’s father handed her newborn over to Queen Josephine as part of the north’s terms and conditions.
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Josephine could not bring herself to kill the child, so she gave him to a loving family in the Midlands who had recently lost a child of their own.
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Years later, King Tahir, the king of the Lowlands fell under a sleeping curse and Kleopatra became queen.
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Desmond, a young man who was working for the queen has fled her palace with a vow of his own: the dark queen must die.
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With Desmond on a mission to bring Queen Kleopatra to justice, she has finally declared war on both the Highlands and the Midlands, vowing to bring the sun down once and for all.
Which queendom will claim victory by the end of this brawl?
‍ ‍ The Queens
JOSEPHINE, Queen of the Northern Diaspora (The Highlands)
KENYA, Queen of the Middle Empire (The Midlands)
KLEOPATRA, Queen of the Southern Diaspora (The Lowlands)
One World, Two Wars, Three Black Queens
One World, Two Wars, Three Black Queens
‍ ‍World Map
The Characters
Other Characters
DESMOND, unknown knight/ninja
ZION, fortune teller
LORD QUAN, advisor to King Tahir
KING TAHIR, rightful king of the Southern Diaspora, father to Kleopatra, Kadeem, Kenzi and Kendrick
The Queens’ Court
LORD NIGEL , Royal advisor to Josephine
LORD RON , First advisor to the Southern Crown
GENERAL PATRICK, First General to the Southern Crown
APHIA, Royal attendant to Tashney
ISOKEN, Royal attendant to Josephine
MAKEBA, personal bodyguard to Kleopatra
THE BEAST, human cannibal, Kleopatra’s pet
VINCENT, Minister of War to Kenya, brother to Kenya
Members of the Royal Families
TASHNEY (Mistress TASH), princess of the North
LEONE (The Ancestors), dead brother to Josephine
KADEEM, brother to Kleopatra
KENZI, brother to Kleopatra
KENDRICK, brother to Kleopatra
ATTACOMEA, brother to Josephine
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