Playwright Jeremy O. Harris Released After Drug Possession Allegations
After going through a harrowing period of detention in Japan, playwright Jeremy O. Harris has been released.
The Slave Play playwright was arrested upon his arrival in Okinawa after flying there from Taiwan. Authorities there say they found 780 milligrams of ecstasy in his carry-on bag. That’s about six times the amount of one regular dose.
Harris was arrested on Nov. 16, but the media didn’t get wind of his arrest until earlier this month. Japanese authorities released little information on any further charges but his representatives say Harris is free to remain in Japan, where he’s doing research for an upcoming project.
The 36-year-old playwright faced up to seven years on drug charges in Japan if convicted. Harris became a sensation after his controversial Slave Play earned 12 Tony Award nominations in 2020. It also generated significant backlash, including an unsuccessful Change.org petition to cancel its Broadway run and a rebuke from Tariq Nasheed.
The three-act play, originally developed at Yale School of Drama, covers three interracial couples where the Black partner has to undergo “antebellum sexual performance therapy” to resolve their feelings of sexual apathy. At the time, Harris said he was surprised by the reaction, given that the play was sold out and extended beyond its original run.
“Honestly, I thought that Black people would give me the benefit of the doubt,” he told The Root in 2019. I felt that if it was controversial with anyone, it will be controversial with white people in a very real way.”
He added, “I wasn’t writing this play and thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to go up at one of the biggest off-Broadway theaters in the country. You don’t write a play like this and think that that’s going to be what happens. You’ve gotta feel like you just couldn’t think you’re going to produce it yourself, you know? And so for me, that was where the real surprise came from—the fact I didn’t account for the fact that people wouldn’t know me well enough to give me the benefit of the doubt, you know? Which is fair. It’s completely fair.”
Harris also co-wrote Zola, the 2021 A24 movie based on a viral Twitter thread, starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, and Colman Domingo, and appeared as an actor in Emily in Paris and Gossip Girl.
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