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The Struggle Continues: Scripts, Essays, Reflections
As a playwright, director, and performer, Robbie McCauley has been an influential presence in the American avant-garde theatre for many decades. In her work, she consistently confronts uncomfortable truths about race and racism in America with a sharp eye for nuance and complexity, using the personal to extend into the universal by weaving her own family history into her narratives. By breaking down the traditional walls between performer and spectator, her plays encourage challenging and necessary dialogue about the ways race affects our social frameworks and individual lived experiences. In addition to containing the full text of McCauley's plays Sally's Rape, Indian Blood, Sugar, and Jazz 'n Class, this volume includes insightful introductions to each play as well as additional essays by McCauley and other leading writers and academics about her work and legacy.
312 pages, Paperback
Published September 23, 2025
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January 10, 2026
I first pre-ordered this book in October of 2021. After at least a dozen emails from the bookstore telling me the delivery date had been postponed, The Struggle Continues finally arrived at my door in October of 2025.
Still, this long-awaited volume did not disappoint. It's a beautiful collection of McCauley's work, the center of which are five plays—Mississippi Freedom: a Performance Theater Work, Indian Blood, Sally's Rape, Sugar, and Jazz 'n Class: a Performance Meditation. The balance of the book consists of an excellent introduction to McCauley's work written by Alisa Solomon, introductions to the plays, a few of McCauley's own essays and meditations, four reflections and memoria written for/to McCauley, and an interview with the editors. Of the reflections, I think the piece by Daniel Alexander Jones is the most essential reading.
The plays are the best thing in the book, and I do wish the volume had included more of them; it would have been especially interesting to see some of the works-in-progress, since that is such a theme of the book and of McCauley's work in general. Being able, for example, to read My Father and the Wars—the piece that grew into Indian Blood—would have been especially instructive. And I was surprised to see that The Buffalo Project, The Other Weapon, and The History of the Universe According to Those Who've Had to Live It were not included. But I am happy to have what we have, and perhaps this simply means that another intrepid scholar will compile McCauley's community-based work in a different volume.
It's worth saying, too, that the book itself is beautiful. It's the finest physical edition I've ever seen from Theatre Communications Group, and the work the editors have done here is excellent.
Still, this long-awaited volume did not disappoint. It's a beautiful collection of McCauley's work, the center of which are five plays—Mississippi Freedom: a Performance Theater Work, Indian Blood, Sally's Rape, Sugar, and Jazz 'n Class: a Performance Meditation. The balance of the book consists of an excellent introduction to McCauley's work written by Alisa Solomon, introductions to the plays, a few of McCauley's own essays and meditations, four reflections and memoria written for/to McCauley, and an interview with the editors. Of the reflections, I think the piece by Daniel Alexander Jones is the most essential reading.
The plays are the best thing in the book, and I do wish the volume had included more of them; it would have been especially interesting to see some of the works-in-progress, since that is such a theme of the book and of McCauley's work in general. Being able, for example, to read My Father and the Wars—the piece that grew into Indian Blood—would have been especially instructive. And I was surprised to see that The Buffalo Project, The Other Weapon, and The History of the Universe According to Those Who've Had to Live It were not included. But I am happy to have what we have, and perhaps this simply means that another intrepid scholar will compile McCauley's community-based work in a different volume.
It's worth saying, too, that the book itself is beautiful. It's the finest physical edition I've ever seen from Theatre Communications Group, and the work the editors have done here is excellent.
Displaying 1 of 1 review