Companion Exhibition, Quaker Affinity Night, and Creative Team Talkback Set For THE RETURN OF BENJAMIN LAY at Sheen Center

The award-winning London production of THE RETURN OF BENJAMIN LAY is coming to the Sheen Center. Following the Sunday, March 16 matinee performance, the show will host a talkback with the full creative team entitled, “Performing Resistance.” The panel will feature distinguished playwright Naomi Wallace, acclaimed historian Marcus Rediker, RSC Honorary Associate Director Ron Daniels, and actor Mark Povinelli, moderated by Erica Stevens Abbitt. All audience members are encouraged to remain in the theatre following the performance for this free presentation.

 

On March 14 at 7pm, alumni of Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company will reunite in the audience of The Return of Benjamin Lay. Alumni event committee members include Geneva Carr (Tony nominee, Bull, Skeleton Crew), Jordan Lage (founding member, Atlantic Theater Company), Eric Tucker (AD, Bedlam), Jade King Carroll (PAD, Chautauqua Theater Center), Mark Armstrong (AD, The 24-Hour Plays), COSMIN CHIVU (Pace University), Emily Mann (two-time Tony-nominated director and playwright), MEGAN O'LEARY (PCTC founding member, AAD emerita), Sarah Koestner (PCTC founding member), JACKIE CHRISTY (founder and AD, Access Theatre).

 

On March 22 at 7pm, the New York Quarterly Meeting of NYC Quakers will commence during a performance of The Return of Benjamin Lay. Immediately following the performance, Friends will gather for worship sharing on location at the Sheen Center. 

 

Finally, the Production Team has announced a companion exhibition to "The Return of Benjamin Lay" in the Dilenschneider Gallery at the Sheen Center. This exhibition dives deeper into the remarkable life of this singular and astonishing man. One of the first ever to demand the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world, Benjamin Lay performed public guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity. He wrote a fiery, controversial book against bondage that Benjamin Franklin published in 1738. He lived in a cave, made his own clothes, refused to consume anything produced by slave labor, championed animal rights, and embraced vegetarianism. He acted on his ideals to create a new, practical, revolutionary way of life, and inspired future generations to fight for freedom and radically live their values.

 

Previews for The Return of Benjamin Lay begin Friday, March 14, in advance of an opening on Monday, March 17. Performances continue through Sunday, April 6. Tickets are available now at SheenCenter.org. 

 

The production will transfer to the Quintessence Theatre in Philadelphia. 

About the Show

2025. In the silence of a Quaker meeting house, Benjamin Lay – shepherd, sailor, revolutionary, and the British Empire's first revolutionary abolitionist – returns from the grave almost 300 years after his death, as feisty and unpredictable as ever.

 

The 4ft “David” confronts the “Goliath” of slavery as he demands once again to be readmitted into the Quaker community that disowned him for ideas considered dangerous and disruptive.

How far will he go to share his prophetic vision knowing the cost of protest?

 

Sweeping across the centuries and continents, The Return of Benjamin Lay is a hallucinatory exploration of the list of a radical who became one of the earliest revolutionary abolitionists.

The award-winning London production, "an important groundbreaking play" (Closeup Culture), by decorated playwright Naomi Wallace and historian MARCUS REDIKER, features "a riveting performance by Mark Povinelli" (Broadway World), direction by Royal Shakespeare Company Honorary Associate Ron Daniels, set design by PATRICK BLANCHARD based on original concept by Riccardo Hernandez, lighting design by Yichen Zhou, with movement design by Bill Irwin. The play crosses the Atlantic in a bold exploration of an utterly impossible man.

 

The Return of Benjamin Lay was first performed at the Finborough Theatre, London (Neil McPherson, Artistic Director), produced by Arsalan Sattari Productions.

 

Shares co-writer Naomi Wallace, “It is my hope that the play will inspire audiences to be, as Dr. King called it, 'extremists...for the extension of justice.'”

 

PCTC Producing Artistic Director Joseph W. Rodriguez explains, “When Naomi's powerful writing is coupled with that of the eminent writer and historian Marcus Rediker, the result is The Return of Benjamin Lay, a tale of a real-life 18th sailor-preacher-revolutionary. It is set in America's beginnings, but it's really a play for today, asking the questions:  What is integrity?  What is vision? How far can we go in our politics before we go too far?”

 

Rodriguez adds, “In a recent trip to the UK, PCTC Associate Artistic Director Erica Stevens Abbitt and I saw the Finborough Theatre production of The Return of Benjamin Lay, starring the talented L.A.-based actor Mark Povinelli.  Each of us came to the same conclusion. This play needs to be seen in the United States, by an American audience!”

To post a comment, you must register and login.