Award-winning playwright, performer and singer-songwriter Monique DeBose brings Adding Up America: Solving the Race Equation to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a jazz-infused solo show exploring mixed-race identity, belonging and the societal need to categorise. Ahead of the festival, DeBose spoke about the deeply personal experiences behind the production, how a mathematics degree unexpectedly shaped the work, and why honesty can be a radical act of healing.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, DeBose describes themself as someone fascinated by both creativity and human connection. Their path into theatre, however, was far from straightforward.
“I studied mathematics in college,” DeBose explains. “It wasn’t because I wasn’t interested in studying music and performance. My parents very much were like, ‘You’re going to college, we’re going to be sensible about this.’ So maths or sciences. So that’s what I did.” Alongside that mathematical training came a master’s degree in spiritual psychology. “Now I’ve brought it all together in my creative endeavours. I create music and performance pieces that really look at the human condition and challenge a lot of the norms and what society says we should be.”
That sense of living between different worlds lies at the heart of Adding Up America. DeBose, whose father is African American and whose mother is Irish American, describes being “born in between two different worlds”.
“I’ve always felt like I have been that bridge culture,” they say. “I’ve always felt that’s been part of my role, to really help bring seemingly opposing ideas and concepts together. Spiritual and material, Black and white, musical and mathematical.”
The show follows a mixed-race woman questioning how identity is formed and who gets to define it. Through music, storytelling and multiple characters, it examines the factors that shape a person’s sense of self.
“America has often presented to the world that the best of what it is, is white, male, cis, puritanical,” says DeBose. “That is what represents America. And that is not what we are. Through one person’s story, and ultimately choosing herself, the show asks what pieces we decide to leave out of who we are. Finding a way to bring in all of what we are is really what the journey of this story is about.”
The origins of the work can be traced back to a life-changing health diagnosis in 2016, when DeBose was told they had a desmoid tumour in their abdominal wall.
“I decided to have a conversation with the tumour and ask it what it was here for,” they recall. “And the tumour said, ‘There are so many things you’re not saying. There are so many things that you are keeping within you because you’re afraid you’re going to get kicked out of the tribe.’”
That experience became the catalyst for writing. “There’d be moments where I’d be sitting thinking, ‘I cannot say that out loud. That would be devastating, horrible, shameful.’ But these things needed to be said.”
Even now, performing the material remains challenging.
“It stems from personal origin and the subject matter is intense,” says DeBose. “There’s lots of funny in the show. There’s music in the show. It’s a buffet of emotions. When I originally started, it felt as if I was going out there with no skin. As time has gone on, it has felt like I’ve developed a new skin.”
While mathematics became part of the title and structure of the show, DeBose says that connection emerged naturally rather than by design.
“The first equation that popped into my brain was Black plus white equals what?” they explain. “It wasn’t, ‘Let me use maths, that’ll be clever.’ It was curiosity. Then it took me deeper and deeper. Because I have the maths background, I started asking questions about limits and factors and equations. What are the ingredients that make up identity?”
As they prepare for their Edinburgh Fringe debut, DeBose is eager to share those questions with audiences, regardless of background.
“I feel like the work is a gift,” they say. “Anybody who walks into the theatre will be changed or left with a deeper question about themselves and their lives. It offers more opportunity for empathy and a way to look at something people may be curious about, but to see themselves in it in a new way.”
The impact of that conversation between performer and audience is what continues to drive them.
“To know that something that has been so challenging to acknowledge, write and share has value for others, that’s a gift,” says DeBose. “Any artist, any human, knowing that their story has value for someone else, that’s what we’re here for.”
And for anyone still wondering whether to book a ticket?
“We all operate our lives based on a certain set of equations that we may or may not be conscious of,” DeBose says. “This show, through humour, through heart-opening experiences, through characters and through music, allows you to get familiar with what equations you’re operating from. Come see it.”
Listings and ticket information can be found here
