This Bitter Earth

'Look, you don't have to join the movement or whatever. You don't have to march or rally or call or write letters or even get fucking angry. I don't care about that. I don't. What I do care about is YOU.'

Jesse, an introspective Black playwright, finds his choices challenged when his boyfriend, Neil, a white Black Lives Matter activist, calls him out for his political apathy.

As passions and priorities collide, the two of them are forced to reckon with divisions of race and class, and the bravery it takes to love unconditionally.

Harrison David Rivers's play This Bitter Earth is an intimate, romantic and gripping drama that explores what it means to love outside the box. It premiered at the New Conservatory Theatre Center, San Francisco, in 2017. This edition was published alongside its production at Soho Theatre, London, in 2025, directed by Billy Porter and starring Omari Douglas and Alexander Lincoln.