Quaz DeGraft’s In The Black arrives at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a sharp, darkly comic examination of ambition, identity and the cost of success. Drawing from a personal journey that began far from the stage, the solo show follows Kofi, a young Black accountant navigating the high-stakes world of finance. For Quaz, the story is rooted in lived experience and the questions that continue to shape them.
“I didn’t start in the arts,” Quaz explains. “I went to college and played American football, I majored in accounting and minored in finance. My father was an accountant, and growing up as a first generation immigrant it was always the stable professions. So I chose that route.” A career in public accounting and private equity followed, until a chance encounter with an acting class changed everything. “We did a monologue exercise and I had one of those experiences where I thought, whatever that was, I want to keep doing this.”
That moment set Quaz on a path that would eventually lead to writing and performing their own work. “The seeds of In The Black started in a solo performance class,” they say. “I couldn’t even tell you why I wanted to do a solo play, it just felt like something I was called to do. I was thinking about ambition, about being so driven that you risk pushing away the people you love, and that became the core of the story.”
At the heart of the play is Kofi, a character shaped by Quaz’s own experiences but firmly fictional. Writing them proved both liberating and daunting. “Being vulnerable myself wasn’t as difficult as you might think,” Quaz reflects. “What was difficult was exposing other people in my life. I volunteered to do this, but they didn’t. That was the scarier side of it.” Despite this, the process became a form of self-exploration. “It was very cathartic. It allowed me to really dig into those questions and ask myself what I would do in those situations.”
Family expectation is a central theme in In The Black, something Quaz understands intimately. “As the first of four children, you set the tone,” they say. “My parents came from Ghana to provide a better future, so there’s an expectation that you do better than them. Our margin for error was very small. You had to choose the path with the highest probability of success because your family needed it.” That pressure naturally informed both the narrative and Kofi’s internal conflict. “That’s what drives a lot of decisions. Sometimes it means you don’t get to explore other paths, because you simply can’t afford to.”
The play also interrogates the idea of navigating systems that were never built to support you. Quaz describes a pivotal realisation that fed directly into the writing. “I’ve always believed that if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything,” they say. “But around 2020, I had this moment of reckoning where I thought, I don’t know if that’s true. There might be a ceiling because of the colour of my skin or where my family’s from.” That understanding reshaped both their perspective and the play’s stakes. “You’re constantly butting up against the system. You have to work ten times harder and still face prejudice. That’s where that idea comes from.”
As a writer, Quaz pushed themselves to ensure the story lived in moral ambiguity. “In the beginning, the conflict was very light,” they admit. “I had to keep pushing it to the point where once the character crosses a line, there’s no going back. That’s what makes an audience lean in, when the decision changes everything.”
Despite its weighty themes, In The Black embraces humour, something that comes naturally to Quaz. “I didn’t have to force the comedy,” they say. “It’s just how I am. Even in dark situations, I find something funny. Life is a mix of both, and I think that balance is what makes the piece feel real.” That tonal blend, they suggest, reflects both the character and the world they inhabit. “Kofi is charming and can be goofy at times, even in messed up situations. That contrast is part of the fun.”
Following a first visit to the Fringe in 2025, Quaz is eager to return with their own show. “It’s one of the greatest experiences of my life,” they say. “Being surrounded by that much creativity from people all over the world, there’s nothing like it. I didn’t even understand the scale at first, which probably helped, because I just thought, let’s do it.”
Ultimately, In The Black is an invitation for audiences to reflect on their own ambitions and the compromises that come with them. “If you’re looking for a show that challenges what it costs to make it, but also lets you have a good time, this is for you,” Quaz says. “It’s for people who dream big and are trying to figure out how to get there.”
And while the play may raise difficult questions, Quaz hopes it leaves audiences with something more uplifting. “I want people to leave feeling inspired and empowered,” they conclude. “Everyone has their own glass ceiling, and the goal is to keep pushing through it. If the show can do that, and people have a good time along the way, then I’ve done what I set out to do.”
Listings and ticket information can be found here
