Adrienne Kennedy's interest in foreign landscapes crystallized in 1960 during a voyage aboard the Queen Elizabeth to England, France, Spain, and African. Here she received the inspiration for her complicated characters. Kennedy gathered and stored images that would later emerge in her signature mental rant, Funnyhouse of a Negro . The cameo appearances in the play include Queen Elizabeth I, the Duchess of Hapsburg, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Patrice Lumumba, Anne Boleyn, the King of France, and Chopin.
- Negro-Sarah: Sarah is the protagonist of the play. The only facts we know for certain about Sarah are that she is a student at a city college in New York studying English, she works as a librarian, and lives in a brownstone in the west 90's of Manhattan. We also know that her mother was white and her father was black. She spends the play grappling with her interracial identity, trying to latch onto her whiteness, but failing to escape her blackness. The Duchess of Hapsburg, Queen Victoria, Jesus, and Patrice Lumumba all act as manifestations of Sarah's self.
- Duchess of Hapsburg (One of herselves): The Duchess of Hapsburg represents Sarah's racist subconscious, as her character is an emblem of European colonialism. She is also a manifestation of Sarah's desired sexuality. She is romantically involved with Jesus in the play, and spends most of her time on stage in the Queen's chambers. She loses almost all of her hair throughout the play. Her character has traditionally been played by a black woman wearing a white mask.
Additionally, the Duchess of Hapsburg's personal history echoes the mental condition of Sarah. In 1864 Napoleon III appointed Carlota (duchess) and husband, Austrian Archduke Maximillian, to the Mexican throne. However, they were left penniless and powerless against Mexican revolutionaries. During her reign, the Duchess began to display signs of mental illness which eventually descended into full-blown schizophrenia. Her husband was tried for treason and executed by revolutionaries, meanwhile Carlota was banished to the family's castle since she was diagnosed as incurably insane. Her tragic story was portrayed in the 1939 film "Juarez" which provided inspiration for Kennedy.
- Queen Victoria Regina (One of herselves): Queen Victoria Regina represents Sarah's deep obsession with whiteness, as well as her repressed sexuality. Her character also lives on stage in the form of a statue. Like the Duchess of Hapsburg, she is also an emblem of European colonialism. She is portrayed in exactly the same manner as the Duchess, played by a black woman with a white mask. She also loses her hair throughout the course of the play. Historically, Queen Victoria was the Queen of England from 1837–1901, and the empress of India from 1876-1901. Queen Victoria exemplifies the height of British colonial rule and the fragile life of a royal figure. She was a symbolic rather than political leader. Unfortunately, she suffered familial distress and debilitating depression during her reign. The Queen's life symbolizes another form of masking. It is a mask of power that obscured the virtual weakness of a constitutional monarchy.
- Jesus (One of herselves): Jesus, traditionally depicted as an emblem for Christianity, represents Sarah's disdain for her father. However, Kennedy's Jesus rebukes modern representations of a white, beautified Jesus. He is traditionally portrayed on stage by a black actor with either a white mask, or painted yellow skin. Jesus is described as a "dwarf, dressed in white rags and sandals. He leads the selves into the jungle to kill Patrice Lumumba. He also loses his hair throughout the course of the play. As a historical figure known for his martyrdom, Jesus's character is an integral element in the play's dealing with racial identity and sacrifice.
Furthermore, this character challenges notions surrounding Christianity's holiness. Kennedy's Jesus violates insistence on binary constructs like good-evil, white-black, and normal-abnormal. This embodiment of dichotomies addresses the problematic role of Christianity within the lives of the enslaved and colonized. While Christianity symbolizes comfort and liberation, it is also a source of persecution and oppression. Jesus also represents for Sarah feels about herself: stunted, deformed and needy. Additionally, he is the last of her inner selves to lose his hair, thereby sealing Sarah's fate.
- Patrice Lumumba (One of herselves): Patrice Lumumba represents Sarah's self-hatred, and he is also a manifestation of Sarah's father. He carries an ebony mask throughout the play, constantly alluding to African traditions. He also loses his hair throughout the course of the play. However, Lumumba reveals the secret to hair within the play. He proclaims, "For if I did not despise myself then my hair would not have fallen. Historically, Patrice Lumumba was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo from June 1960 to December 1960. He was executed by a firing squad, and both the United States and United Kingdom have been accused for conspiring in his murder. He was an activist for independence, and with a death so influenced by imperialism, his character is the ultimate opposite of Queen Victoria and The Duchess, who both embody such imperialism.
- Sarah's landlady (Funnyhouse Lady/Mrs. Conrad): The landlady is a white woman who runs Sarah's boarding house, and is one of the only two characters in the play to actually exist in the reality of the play. She delivers monologues to the audience regarding Sarah's life, making her a crucial character for the audience, as she is one of the few people who offers a more objective view of Sarah. She discovers Sarah's hanging body at the end of the play.
- Raymond (Funnyhouse Man): Raymond lives in the boarding house with Sarah, and she calls him her boyfriend. Raymond is a white Jewish young man. Raymond likes Sarah because of her race which she has a problem with. Sarah asserts, "I would like to lie and say I love Raymond. But I do not. He is very interested in Negroes". He is the other character who exists in an objective reality (with the Landlady). He is with the Landlady at the end of the play when she discovers Sarah's body, and ends the play by saying that her father never actually committed suicide. He also appears in the play for a scene as the 'Funnyhouse Man' with the Duchess, revealing the role he plays in Sarah's subconscious.
- The mother: While Sarah's mother is never formally introduced in the play, she appears in the opening dreamlike sequence, as well as two other scenes in which she yells about being raped by Sarah's black father, claiming that she should have never let a black man touch her. Her mother represents all that is good and a victim of "blackness" The Landlady reveals that the mother has lost all of her hair and lives in an insane asylum. She also haunts Sarah in her nightmares.
