SUGAR IN OUR WOUNDS with First Floor Theater

First Floor Theater has presented the Chicago premiere of Sugar In Our Wounds by Donja R. Love. Directed by company member Mikael Burke, the piece is part of a trilogy by Love, looking at black love in pivotal moments in history. Sugar in Our Wounds is something that we all know and love, a romantic period piece, but also something that we seldom get: a queer, black, romantic period piece. 

In the script, we followed a young man, James, who was enslaved on a plantation in the years leading up to the Civil War. James was played by Michael Turrentine with endearing sensitivity, chuckling with a fresh grin as easily as standing in poignant silence, with his eyes darting across the stage. James resided in a cabin with his found family, Aunt Mama (Renee Lockett) and Mattie (Ashley Crowe). As Aunt Mama, the strong soul who had weathered many a storm and had emerged with equal shares of humorous quips and seeds of wisdom, Lockett brought a majestic stability. Ashley Crowe successfully evoked the yearning of adolescence, walking the tightrope of insecurity from the hormones of youth and generosity from the character’s life experiences as Mattie, a sweet soul whose face had been scarred by the daughter of the owner of the house in a jealous fit of rage. 

The daughter of the owner of the plantation was Isabel, played with ferocity by Grainne Ortlieb. Unable to have children, and isolated because her husband left to fight in the Confederate Army, Isabel takes to giving secret reading lessons to James. Isabel’s loneliness at her husband’s absence might have been sympathetic if she hadn’t used and abused everyone around her, going so far as to try to seduce James during a lesson. But she was dismayed to find her advances rebuffed by James, and among the many reasons why he protested was because he was “particular,” or so he was called by those around him. 

James didn’t understand what that meant or how he felt until the “moody and broody” Henry arrived at the plantation in search of his own family. Henry’s guarded nature, mysteriously and intriguingly supplied by Londen Shannon, was softened by his romance and friendship with James. Together, they held fast to the hope that one day, their freedom will be restored and their love accepted. 

In the hands of a lesser skilled director than Burke, perhaps Love’s poetic language could have become stagnant and saccharine, but Burke kept the beauty in the words grounded in the intentions of the characters. By Burke keeping the expressive text active, it remained expressive and not effusive; essential and not merely ornamental. Burke’s direction unraveled the inner lives of the characters through the words, instead of tangling and tripping them. 

The fifth character in this show wasn’t even a human being; it was a mystical tree. Every man in James’ family had been murdered by lynching on that tree. It whispered James’ name to him as well as the names and days of the men who had passed on to the other side via the tree. It also provided visions of the future, making it a vessel of connection for the past, present, and future. The presence of this tree was created by design team Joy Ahn (scenic design), Eric Watkins (lighting design), and Sam Clapp (sound design), and the overall effect was hypnotizing. The tree was made of plywood, pieced together with its branches unfurling across the ceiling and light emanating out from the branches and trunk. Ahn’s design of the tree didn’t end at the trunk, but continued to the benches and bed, all in the same earthy tones, leaving the eye to perceive the entire stage as the tree. The magic of the tree was enhanced by Clapp’s sound design, which took songs of joy, love, and sadness hummed by James (Turrentine), and layered it with the sounds that go bump in the night like cicadas and coyotes. 

The title is in reference to a theme that has been prevalent in the culture of African-Americans and queer people in the United States, which is turning ugliness into beauty, and pain into healing. Venture out of your apartment and brave the cold and dreary Chicago fall and let this production warm your heart and perhaps bring a tear to your eye. Even if you are not much of a crier, it will do your heartstrings some good to be pulled at by these skilled actors and brilliant designers. 

Sugar in Our Wounds plays at the Den Theatre (1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.) The performance time is around one hundred minutes with no intermission. The regular run is Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. There are industry nights on Monday, November 4th, and Monday, November 28th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25-35, with student prices at $20. Closing date is November 23rd. Tickets are available at firstfloortheater.com. 

Highly Recommended 

Sophie Vitello

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.