Let It Burn: Black Queer Love and Longing Smolder in “The Fires”

The Fires, Raja Feather Kelly’s debut as a playwright, braids together the lives of three men who lived in the same Brooklyn apartment in 1974, 1998, and 2021. The play, which just opened at Soho Rep in NYC, stars Phillip James Brannon, Ronald Peet, Jason Veasey, Sheldon Best, Michelle Wilson, Janelle McDermott, Beau Badu, and Jon-Michael Reese. The play straddles romance, science-fiction, and the modern-day drama of circuitous phone calls with a love interest. This episode, like the show it describes, contains strong language and sex.

This video essay is a review of “The Fires” written by Raja Feather Kelly. Soho Rep’s off-Broadway production of “The Fires” took place in spring 2024.