About the Play:

Sugar in Our Wounds is a full-length drama by Donja R. Love. The mystical tree was ancient long before the plantation grew around it. With roots that have outlived generations and branches extending past the heavens, it has borne witness to heartbreak, slavery, and death. But underneath this same tree, the gentle and expressive James finds a love that feels like freedom with the passionate and rebellious Henry. Powerful and deeply poetic, Sugar in Our Wounds explores the untold story of queer love at a crossroads in Black history.

Sugar in Our Wounds is a powerful story, taking a look into the lives of LGBTQ African slaves in the deep south. On a plantation during the Civil War, a mystical tree stretches up toward heaven. Generations of slaves have been hanged on this tree. But James, a young slave with a passion for education, is going to be different, as long as he keeps his head down and practices his reading. Moreover, as the Civil War rages on, he reads newspapers about the imminent possibility of freedom. When a brooding stranger arrives on the plantation, James and his makeshift family take the man in. Soon, an unexpected bond leads to a striking romanceemerges, inviting the couple and those around them into uncharted territory. But is love powerful enough to set your true self free? This lyrical and lushly realized play is part of Donja R. Love's exploration of queer love at pivotal moments in Black history.

Sugar in Our Wounds premiered in 2018 at Manhattan Theatre Club off-Broadway in New York City. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US

Cast: 3 female, 2 male

What people say:

"…throat-lumpening, nose-reddening, fantastically moving… Sugar in Our Wounds [is] written in lush, poetic dialect…its message is unimpeachable – that when we fail to treat one another as fully human, we invite tragedy…." — New York Times

"It is an artistic, literary and conceptual triumph." — The Fordham Observer

"…Love’s desire to celebrate these characters and their stories…is accomplished. Sugar in Our Wounds is simple, timeless, magical storytelling at its finest…." — BroadwayBlog.com

"[An] ambitious drama…evocative…this is a play to celebrate what was beautiful in an ugly world, rather than dwell on tragedy or otherness." — BroadwayWorld.com

" Sugar in Our Wounds implausibly manages to find love in the most terrible of circumstances. It searches for a queer history that passed without record, while simultaneously pointing toward a future in which our rigid taxonomy of sexual identities is no longer necessary to achieve political equality." — TheaterMania.com

About the Playwright:

Donja R. Love is an Afro-Queer American poet, filmmaker, and playwright from Philadelphia. He is the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ People of Colour.