Boston’s Old North Church played a pivotal role in America’s fight for independence. It has continued to be a house of worship for 300 years. On Thursday, this popular Boston tourist attraction will also, for the first time, host an original play.
Old North Church—official name “Christ Church in the City of Boston”—draws about 500,000 tourists per year. It is the oldest church (built 1723) in a city of historic sites. The church with the famous white steeple is still home to an active Episcopal congregation.
A play seemed like a natural way to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the church, says Nikki Stewart. She is executive director of Old North Illuminated, the nonprofit that operates the historic site at the church. The play aligns with the organization’s goal of teaching, Stewart explains.
“The reason we teach history at Old North Illuminated is to help people understand how we came to the present and then to help people think about and feel inspired to change the future or to impact the future,” she says.
Patrick Gabridge is the producing artistic director of Plays in Place. His group works with historic sites to create site-specific presentations. It has done plays at the Old State House, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Old South Meeting House, all in Massachusetts.
To ensure accuracy for the Old North Church play, Gabridge researched historical records for six months.
“It has to be a dramatic play that’s going to engage an audience, and it has to be a play that’s going to work for a modern ear,” he says. “But we want to make sure we’re not telling things that we know aren’t true.”
Revolution’s Edge is set the day before the start of the American Revolution. The play, written by Gabridge, is an imagining of the interactions of three people whose lives are about to be upended by war. It also explores what the events will mean for their families.
The play’s events take place on April 18, 1775—just hours before two men hung two lanterns in the church’s bell tower. The lights would signal that British soldiers were heading across the Charles River and on to Lexington and Concord. The event was immortalized in the line “One if by land, and two if by sea” in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
The three people in the play were real people. They walked the floors of the church’s sanctuary, where the play will be performed, and sat in the pews where the audience will sit.
One of the characters is Minister Mather Byles, Jr. He remains loyal to the British crown. Another, vestry member Captain John Pulling, Jr., is an ardent patriot and one of the two men who would hang the lanterns in the tower. Cato, who does not have a last name, is a man enslaved by Byles.
“I think for a play like this, we want [the audience] to appreciate that the people in our past were real people who had complex decisions to make and real lives,” Gabridge says. “I think when we look at them as real complex humans, we realize that just like us today, they didn’t know what was going to happen next, just like we don’t.”
Nathan Johnson plays Cato. He says the project is one of the most important in which he’s been involved. Johnson, who is black, promised himself early in his acting career that he would never play an enslaved person. But the portrayal of Cato and the play’s message made the role too compelling to pass up.
“I want everyone to see that we have all something to contribute to our history,” Johnson says. “I want everyone to see that it is not a matter of white and black. It is a matter of America. It is a matter of progress. It is a matter of stakes; it is a matter of tension. And not just for Pulling and Byles but for Cato as well.”
After Thursday’s opening, the 45-minute play will run three performances per week in the church through mid-September.
“One thing I hope people will feel is that after they’ve seen this play,” Gabridge says, “they will never see Old North the same way again.”
We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. — Romans 8:28
