Theater at Monmouth opens Mat Smart’s play “The Agitators” Friday, part of the (R)evolutionary Redux Season. Originally scheduled to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, this deeply-moving story of the decades-long friendship between Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony is both timely and urgently relevant today.
The production will open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 3; additional performance are set for 7:30 p.m. July 21; 1 p.m. July 17, Aug. 1, 6, 11 and 17; and at 7 p.m. July 25 with a streamed post-dhow discussion.
Brimming with urgency and relevance, “The Agitators” examines the friendship and rivalry between Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. It’s 1849 and two young activists steel themselves for the battles to come. Over the next 45 years, they journey from allies to adversaries and back. Theirs is a story of defiance, of rebellion, of revolution. They agitated the nation. They agitated each other. They changed the course of history. And together, they challenge us with the question: “Do you still believe there can be a country for all?”
An escaped slave, Frederick Douglass became a leader and speaker in the movement to abolish slavery before and during the Civil War. He continued to fight for equality and human rights after the end of the war and the Emancipation Proclamation until his death. Susan B. Anthony was one of the most visible leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, travelling throughout America fighting for the rights of all women. After listening to Douglass speak, she became a fellow activist for the abolishment of slavery.
In Bangor in 1854, Anthony spoke concerning the right to vote for women, and would later do so again in Ellsworth in 1857. In cities and towns like Bangor, Rockland, Ellsworth, and Lewiston, many women, both of privilege and working class, became agitators in the pursuit of voting rights for women. “There was no doubt that the early suffragists knew that they had a long, hard fight ahead of them to change the prevailing cultural attitudes of the day,” writes Andy O’Brien of The Free Press. However, their efforts had finally come to fruition on August 18th of 1920, when the 19th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote for women was ratified.
Playwright Smart sees the story of the pair as timely for 21st Century America. “The distance between people in this country seems to be growing greater and greater,” Smart says. “And something that is so inspiring to me about Susan and Frederick was their ability to have a healthy, hard dialogue with the people they disagreed with …” There is something to be learned from these two great abolitionists, who, despite their racial, background, and gender differences, found ways to fight for what they believed in, while (mostly) respecting the others opinion.
“The Agitators” features Nathan Ramsey as Frederick Douglass and Casey Turner as Susan B. Anthony. Directed by Debra Ann Byrd; assistant director and dramaturgy by Dathan Williams; set design by Nadir Bey, costume design by Michelle Handley, lighting design by Aja Jackson, and sound design by Rew Tippin.
Single tickets cost $36 for adults, $31 for senior citizens, and $22 for children.
For tickets or more information, call the Box Office at 207-933-9999 or visit theateratmonmouth.org.
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