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A Life Enriching Community by Philip Middleton Williams

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  • Scott Sickles:
    30 Sep. 2019
    “ What do young people call it these days??? "All the feels!" That's it! This one gave me ALL THE FEELS!

    What starts out as a series of gentle jokes about retirement communities (the shuttle to the Publix sounds like heaven to me, BTW) soon becomes an inventory of a long life spent together that has reached its sunset years, perhaps less gently than they would have preferred.

    I'd say "great characters" but that may be a little narcissistic because at any given time I'm at least one of these men. :-)

    A beautiful piece especially for mature actors. ”
  • Rachael Carnes:
    30 Sep. 2019
    “ A warm, human portrait of change and the way two people who love each other can protect each other, sometimes even from the truth. The world needs more representation of maturity onstage, not as comic relief or curmudgeonly fodder, but as Williams so lovingly portrays these men, as a family, as lovers, on the edge of uncertainty. ”
  • William Triplett:
    30 Sep. 2019
    “ I found myself absorbed by Philip Williams's portrait of a gay couple about to enter a retirement community. In a very short span of time he manages to convey a long history of a relationship and what keeps the two men together -- and what now challenges them both. A quietly moving piece. Even today, a few days after I saw the play presented at the 2019 Midwest Dramatists Conference, Williams's characters and their fated, poignant lives still linger in mind. ”
  • Larry Rinkel:
    29 Sep. 2019
    “ One thing important to Philip Williams's work is a strong sense of place, in settings like Michigan and Florida, which appears to be his most typical locale. Here we have an elderly gay male couple moving for the last time, and the subtlety of this touching and very understated drama is the gradual reveal why Paul wants to move, and why he withholds the real reason from cantankerous Adam who shows signs of dementia. ”
  • John Adams:
    29 Sep. 2019
    “ Oh, wow. This was so sweet. Somehow sad but very uplifting as well. I feel like I know these characters, and -- more importantly -- the way Williams writes them they know *each other* so well! This is really a beautiful piece. Excellent work! EDIT: Oh, and perhaps the funniest hernia joke you'll ever come across :D ”
  • Joshua H. Cohen:
    28 Sep. 2019
    “ A tender portrait of an older couple still very much in love would be refreshing enough in itself. But then when Adam guesses Paul’s news, it takes an even more heartbreaking turn. ”
  • Claudia Haas:
    2 Feb. 2019
    “ I was fortunate enough to see this at the Inge Festival. It grabbed my heart then just as it did now. There is so much grace and love in this relationship. Williams manages to give us their history through dialogue that is peppered with quips and jabs but served with care. It’s refreshing to see a love story that gives us “later love” and not “first blush.” A beautiful tango for two actors. ”
  • Emily Hageman:
    30 Jan. 2019
    “ Absolutely beautiful. What a wonderful short play about two wonderful people. This is so charming and so funny and so realistic, it reads so beautifully on the page--I can only imagine what it'd be like to actually see on stage. So many things are touched on so deftly and so carefully, but they are done so with such a light, skilled hand. There is such warmth in this short play. I dare you to read it without smiling. ”
  • George Sapio:
    28 Nov. 2018
    “ I love these two men. You can tell there are years and years and lie to spare behind them, and enough love and humor to last for many more years. Discovery can ruin a relationship, but somehow these two show that love can weather anything. Who needs to fit in on the outside when you perfectly match your partner? Good roles for senior males. ”
  • Lee R. Lawing:
    25 Oct. 2018
    “ Heart-warming and touching slice of life drama that is as romantic as it is hopeful. Paul and Adam face a new phase in their relationship that shows that love and friendship can power most people through the difficulty of challenges and changes. The thing that I enjoy with Williams' work is that it does speak to me very directly on so many levels and shows me a world where love and the hope can power us all through the most difficult spots of life. ”

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