This is a stunning companion piece to Williams’ A TREE GROWS IN LONGMONT, in which he shines an incisive light on the idiocy and thinly veiled hatred we still need to combat. Sharp, uncompromising, intelligent, and devastating. Bravo, Philip. Bravo.

This short monologue is Williams's imagining of a straight homophobe's hateful response to the same-sex relationship so beautifully described in his "A Tree Grows in Longmont." I would like to see it performed as a prologue to a performance of "Longmont," which would then give the lie to everything "Larry" says. Good honest work.

Full disclosure: I was there when Philip wrote this monologue and I got to hear him read it as well. I thought it was extraordinary at the time and was eager to read the piece again. It does what art should do, which is to invite the reader into a character, even a hateful one - if not to condone, at least to understand. And like all good art, it leaves the reader with questions: who is this person, why does he act or speak as he does, and what does that mean for me?