ADDING UP AMERICA: SOLVING THE RACE EQUATION to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut
Monique DeBose brings her jazz-infused solo show to Assembly Roxy, exploring mixed-race identity.
Award-winning singer-songwriter and performer Monique DeBose will present ADDING UP AMERICA: SOLVING THE RACE EQUATION at the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The solo production will run at Assembly Roxy’s Snug Bar from August 5–30, excluding August 12–13, 17–20, and 25–27.
Created and performed by DeBose, the show explores mixed-race identity in the United States through storytelling, live jazz-inspired music, and mathematical metaphors. Inspired by her own experiences as a mixed-race woman, the work follows a pivotal moment in her life when she found herself choosing between a future with her Black Ghanaian partner and her White British husband.
Using equations as a framework, ADDING UP AMERICA: SOLVING THE RACE EQUATION examines race, categorisation, and identity while questioning binary ways of thinking. The production blends humour, autobiographical storytelling, and original music performed live over a recorded underscore.
The work was first developed following DeBose’s 2016 diagnosis with a desmoid tumour in her abdominal wall, an experience that inspired both the play and her third album, You Are The Sovereign One. The production has since been redeveloped for its UK premiere after previous presentations at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, Santa Monica Playhouse, and the Whitefire Theatre. The show also received the Hollywood Fringe Producer’s Encore Award and the Valley Theatre Award for Best Solo Production.
DeBose said in a statement, “This show started as a diagnosis and became a liberation. I wrote it when my body told me I had run out of time to keep quiet, and I have been performing it ever since to rooms full of people who recognise themselves in it — Black, white, mixed, British, American, none of the above. Edinburgh Fringe is where stories that matter find the audiences they deserve. I have been waiting my whole career to bring this one here. I am not waiting anymore.”
DeBose is an award-winning playwright, performer, and recording artist newly based in London. A Recording Academy member, she has performed in more than a dozen countries and previously appeared at TEDx and the United Nations SDG Action Zones.
The production has a running time of 60 minutes and is recommended for audiences ages 14 and up.
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