| One of three current, prominent plays about race in America (PASS OVER and FAIRVIEW are the other two, and all are worthwhile), SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS is a sort of mythopoetic fable about same sex desire between slaves in the Antebellum South. It's immediately affecting in part because it relies upon a combination of familiar tropes and platitudes that incite a sort of borrowed sympathy; you're immediately with the play because it's a version of something you've known before. This is useful when the story being told substitutes minority experience for majority experience. There's an important place for plays that do this work. The characters here are sympathetic in part because they're familiar and they espouse positions that most will likely concur with. More uniquely, Love employs intermittent contemporary speech to offset the period locution and this not only provides splashes of surprise, but creates a link between current sensibilities and those of the characters who, though slaves, are not time bound. SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS is a historical play in the best sense; it understands that the past is and isn't past. |
