This study analyses A Very Very Very Dark Matter (2018) by Martin McDonagh in terms of its depiction of power dynamics between racially marginalised characters and white European powerholders, drawing on theories about power relations including Michel Foucault’s work. The play portrays Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens as fictionalised characters, depicting them as two unjustly acclaimed writers who exploit two Congolese pygmy women to produce their stories. These two writers build their career by stealing and suppressing these pygmy women’s voice and benefiting from a discourse that deems them superior. However, the play complicates these power relations by blurring the lines between the marginalised and the powerholder groups. Andersen and Dickens are presented as incapable writers despite their international fame whereas pygmy writers Mbute and Ogechi are presented as literary authorities and strong-willed characters that also aim to re-write the Congo’s history by travelling back in time and preventing the racist killings in the Congo under King Leopold II’s rule. Therefore, this paper aims to argue that Dark Matter reveals how both told and untold stories play a crucial role in shaping history, while also underlining the fluid nature of power dynamics that can be challenged, hence paving the way for an alternative narrative for the marginalised.
Seray Bilgin (Mon,) studied this question.