The Tinderbox

"The Tinderbox," is a wonderful play in 4 acts by Ralph C. Hamm III - a universal story of family strife and family dysfunction - inspired by a poem of the same name. The play is set in a lower middle-class neighborhood in a Massachusetts, industrial, city; where big business has moved out and jobs are scarce. The fabric of the city, and the family, are growing old and decaying. The setting of this play is as relevant today as when it was originally written in 1979. Ralph C. Hamm III, born in 1950, is serving a non-capital first offense life sentence for "intent," stemming from a criminal episode that occurred in 1968 - when he was seventeen years old. During his decades of imprisonment he has aided in spearheading Massachusetts' prison reform movement, has earned degrees in liberal arts, divinity, metaphysics, and paralegal; as well as becoming a published poet, playwright, musician, and artist.