Historic Boston church that sparked the Revolution and hosted the first play

boston – The Old North Church played a pivotal role in America’s struggle for independence and has been an active place of worship for 300 years.

Today, one of Boston’s most popular attractions is also home to the first original play.

Set on the eve of the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, “Revolution’s Edge” dramatically imagines the interaction of three real-life people with differing views whose lives are about to be changed by impending war, and how this event unfolds. Find out what it means. their family.

The play, which opens on Thursday, marks the number of two men hanging two lanterns from a church belfry on April 18, 1775, to signal that British soldiers were crossing the Charles River toward Lexington and Concord. set ahead of time. This event is immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1860 poem, “Paul Revere’s Riding,” in the line “One by land, two by sea.”

Playwright Patrick Gubridge said, “This is a moment of intense drama and a pivotal moment in the lives of three people.”

One of the characters is Minister Mother Biles, Jr., who is staunchly loyal to the British monarchy, and the other is Reverend Captain John Pulling, Jr., a staunch patriot who hangs a lantern on the tower. is one of the men in

Cato, who has no surname, is a man enslaved by Biles.

Gubridge is the Producing Artistic Director of Plays in Place, an organization that works with historic sites and cultural institutions to produce site-specific plays and presentations. To ensure historical accuracy, he undertook six months of painstaking research in the historical archives.

“In the end, it has to be a dramatic play that attracts the audience, and it has to be a play that resonates with modern ears,” he said. “But we don’t want to say things we know aren’t true.”

Theater seemed like a natural way to celebrate the church’s 300th anniversary in Boston’s North End, says Nicky Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminate, the secular nonprofit that runs the site. said Mr. The Anglican congregation is still active today.

Teaching is the main purpose of the organization, and theater fits perfectly with that, she said.

“The reason why we teach history at Old North Illuminate is to help people understand how we got to where we are and to inspire them to change or influence the future. to make people think and feel,” she said.

That’s the message Gabridge took to heart. The three characters in the play are not fictional characters. they were real people. They walked the floor of the sanctuary of the church where the play was performed and took seats for the audience.

“In a play like this, I want people to understand that the people in our past were real people who had to make complicated decisions and had real lives,” Gubridge said. said. “Sometimes we look back at history and feel like it was easy for them to make a choice. But if you look at them as real complex humans, you can see that they, like us today, didn’t know what was going to happen next, just as we don’t. increase. ”

Actor Nathan Johnson, who plays Cato, says it’s one of the most important projects he’s been involved in.

Johnson, who is black, promised early in his acting career that he would never play an enslaved human. However, Cato’s portrayal and the importance of the play’s message make the role too compelling to pass up.

“I want everyone to see that we all have something to contribute to history,” Johnson said. “I want people to understand that this is not a white-black issue. It’s an American issue. It’s an American issue. It’s a progress issue. Not only that, but it was the same for Kato.”

The 45-minute play, funded in part by a grant from the Council for Popular Culture, will run three times a week in churches through mid-September.

“I want people who have seen the play to feel that they will never see Old North the same way again,” Gubridge said. Before. “