←Recommendations of The Sugar Ridge Rag

A moving, elegant portrait of an American family during the Vietnam era that cuts right to the heart of timeless human struggles. How war irrevocably changes us, what we’re willing to sacrifice for our purpose in the world, what family and home is and means, Williams’ tackles these colossal beasts with the delicate and deft touch of a painter, rendering a beautiful, meditative script that is profound as it is heartfelt. Simple, real, and fluid, it is a piece that hearkens back to the past (of the country and theatre), but grounds itself in a now that is inescapable.

PHILIP MIDDLETON WILLIAMS has written a marvelous play of friendship, love, fidelity to our true self, coming out and knowing whom you are, parental love, prejudice, and much more. The plot is powerful and the characters are so real. I truly enjoyed reading this play. I strongly recommend ‘The Sugar Ridge Rag’. BRAVO!

A sprawling drama spanning years and miles, but ultimately a story about the unbreakable bonds of a loving family ahead of their time. Williams has a way with smart characters, dialogue, and timely references.

Williams brings this brotherly love story to a very satisfactory conclusion. His language is rich and very of the time and there's not a false note in any of the scenes or action. And what a heart-rendering speech at the end by Dave.

THE SUGAR RIDGE RAG is a really effective exploration of many family issues, beautifully tied together with a musical underscore. Scenes are connected and with some great lighting and scene change options, it's an inter-woven story that spans years of a family's experience. A great read and a compelling story. Williams knows music, history, and the heart of humans.

Not many can endow the personal with the political like Williams does in THE SUGAR RIDGE RAG. Traveling through the memories of twins Pete and Dave feels like watching a montage of two siblings' home movies, except now we get to see the moments of vulnerability when the camera is turned off. As the brothers develop their respective opinions on American imperialism, love, and destiny, audiences are given an intimate look into the unbreakable bonds between twins. Two last things — produce this play and Go Tigers!

I am rapidly realizing that Williams is one of those rare writers who can do anything. Here, Williams encompasses a story about two twins who are so alike and so different with perspectives on the Vietnam War with both broadly political and deeply personal dimensions, and he manages to tie it all together using rag time as an elegant metaphor. The monologues with their reflections on the brutality of war and the ways it shatters the human psyche are incredibly expressive and manage fresh takes on a subject that so many have taken on. Devastating and poignant, a formidable work.

It's a strange feeling when one of your best friends, who you've known for fifty years, is a playwright, for you keep finding bits of your life in their plays. The Sugar Ridge Rag is Philip Middleton Williams's latest opus and I just finished reading it with not a few tears. I think It's his best work thus far...finding the poetry in mid-west voices and mining the strong feelings engendered by both sides of the Vietnam years. Just like my two younger brothers, one of whom served and the other almost left for Canada.

Williams’s “The Sugar Ridge Rag” beautifully develops the familial bond of two brothers, and shows how destructive a war climate is for everyone, but in this case, losing out on the most free years a human life has to offer: childhood. A poignant period play with a lot of pathos to offer.

A poignant history lesson for those who may not know that the political divide that tore apart the country during Vietnam also tore families apart. The gentle-spirited Granger family has a broad perspective, but still they cannot escape the endemic confusion of the times when it infiltrates their own happy home. The twin brothers—the yin and yang of society’s perceptions of ‘manhood’ as it were—offer a beautifully balanced portrayal of sibling affection. Dave’s revelatory speech near the end of the play is gut-wrenching in its damning indictment of the choices boys must make in wartime.