Sugar in Our Wounds
Closed 1h 40m
Sugar in Our Wounds
85

Sugar in Our Wounds NYC Reviews and Tickets

85%
(47 Reviews)
Positive
89%
Mixed
11%
Negative
0%
Members say
Absorbing, Great acting, Intense, Thought-provoking, Great writing

About the Show

Manhattan Theatre Club presents this lyrical new play, Donja R. Love's exploration of queer love at a pivotal moment in black history.

Read more Show less

Member Reviews (47)

Sort by:
  • Default
  • Standing in our community
  • Highest first
  • Lowest first
  • Newest first
  • Oldest first
  • Only positive
  • Only negative
  • Only mixed
1085 Reviews | 265 Followers
77
Ambitious, Absorbing, Clever, Great acting, Intelligent

See it if If you like an intense show that has very good acting. A moving piece of theater.

Don't see it if If you don't like this period piece right before the civil war. A lot of cursing. If you don't like the subject matter.

716 Reviews | 219 Followers
85
Romantic, Intense, Enchanting, Tragic, Funny

See it if Forbidden gay love disrupts slave family on oppressive civil war plantation. Passion overcomes wisdom. Humorous and surprisingly uplifting.

Don't see it if You don't like magical realism. Play is half realistic, half fantasy. Standard cliches are mixed with upended ones. Heavy sexual content.

650 Reviews | 284 Followers
82
Mesmerizing poetic portrayal of lives of black slaves during civil war tho goes astray at end

See it if brilliantly evokes joy/terror slave commty thru rhythmic language/movement, giant "lynching" tree/see below, frank sex, fine perfs

Don't see it if white slave owner daughter racist cliche; 2nd half focus on improbable homosexual relatnship btwn slaves/see below Read more

535 Reviews | 488 Followers
80
Absorbing, Great acting, Sad, Great writing, Thought-provoking

See it if you want to see a well-acted play that turns the problematic/stereotypical slave narrative on its head and makes you consider alternatives.

Don't see it if you're liking for fun/escapism.

544 Reviews | 58 Followers
78
Well done. well acted. pretty good story.

See it if You appreciate new theatre about something.

Don't see it if You like traditional story telling.

466 Reviews | 237 Followers
88
Absorbing, Refreshing, Intelligent, Great writing, Clever

See it if A beautiful American drama about slavery and should be seen by all.

Don't see it if Not appropriate for children under 12.

468 Reviews | 121 Followers
86
Gay slaves uncivil war melodrama, Gay slaves in civil war melodrama

See it if Touching, if at times mawkish, spiritual portrayal of a slave "family" in the old South. Sheldon Best is the best. Great cast.

Don't see it if The gay love story is memorable, though the outcome is predictable. Fantastic tree makes the set.

474 Reviews | 68 Followers
92
Absorbing, Great acting

See it if Despite the brutal confines of slavery, they find ways to be true to themselves, find their heart songs, and experience love.

Don't see it if Slavery or "N word" are triggering. Gay / queer and Black Lives Matter themes annoy you. Read more

Critic Reviews (14)

The New York Times
June 19th, 2018

“Fantastically moving and not entirely persuasive...An old-fashioned weepie written in lush, poetic dialect...Its techniques are melodramatic. Its assault on the tear ducts is aggravated. And yet its message is unimpeachable...The script might have been stronger if it had wrestled with its conflicts and explored its desires more truthfully, less ahistorically...A hurts-so-good kind of play, which congratulates the audience for sympathizing with its hugely sympathetic lovers."
Read more

Time Out New York
June 20th, 2018

"The playwright has taken ethnographic pains to expertly capture the speaking patterns of his characters, and director Saheem Ali weaves together a world that feels like real life, even when the action branches into the supernatural. His ace collaborators include costumer Ayite, choreographer Moultrie and hair and makeup designer Cookie Jordan. Together with a uniformly wonderful cast, they movingly convey 'Sugar’'s central message: Love prevails even in a hopeless place."
Read more

Variety
June 21st, 2018

"Regrettably, once he makes a big business of bringing the two lovers together, the playwright has little else to say about slavery, the South or the war...Knowing that the love story of Henry and James is part of a grand dramaturgical design gives it more weight. But experienced on its own, the romance speaks its name but moves on without leaving any echoes from its moment in history."
Read more

Theatermania
June 19th, 2018

"Exhilarating performances spring from the dramatic tension of the script. Love smartly sets his story in the months before the Emancipation Proclamation, as a whole way of life is on the brink of collapse...Performance and design come together in director Saheem Ali's production, takes full advantage of the high stakes to create a world that is simultaneously enchanted and all too real...’Sugar in Our Wounds’ implausibly manages to find love in the most terrible of circumstances.”
Read more

BroadwayWorld
June 26th, 2018

“A handsome and well-acted production…An ambitious drama...This is a play to celebrate what was beautiful in an ugly world, rather than dwell on tragedy or otherness.”
Read more

New York Stage Review
June 19th, 2018

“The play, directed with angry sensitivity by Saheem Ali, possesses a folk tale’s disturbing enchantment, which rises to horror in a final scene that unfolds when Henry returns to the family after he’s had to flee a potential lynching as the result of a rape claim Isabel makes after he declines her advances...Zooms in on a moment in American history that should ideally be deep in the receding past but isn’t. That may be the play’s truest power.”
Read more

Theatre is Easy
June 20th, 2018

"Through this story of adversity, the ensemble brings the audience much laughter and hope...Saheem Ali's direction is top-notch, taking into account the many layers of coded speech and meanings among oppressed people. Every line and facial expression produces immediate reactions...Michael Thurber's original music and Darrell Grand Moultrie's movement shine through in many spiritual songs and dances."
Read more

CurtainUp
June 25th, 2018

"Director Ali steers this production along a narrow path that runs between the realistic and the fanciful, ensuring that the five fine actors do justice both to what's straightforward and to what's exotic in Love's often poetic, sometimes banal, script...Berry, always convincing as the wisest soul on the plantation, would be reason enough to see 'Sugar in Our Wounds'...Thanks to Berry's Aunt Mama, audiences will recall this tale of bigotry and thwarted love for its humor as well as tragedy."
Read more