A drama/biography by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
(authors of Inherit the Wind and Auntie Mame)
Show Dates – May 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, & 23
THE REVIEWS:
“Absolutely fascinating …. Imaginatively commanding” Washington Post.
“Scene after scene moves you to laughter or close to tears. ” Newsday
More …
“If the law is of such a nature that it requires you to be an agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.” So wrote the young Henry David Thoreau in 1849. Three years earlier, Thoreau had put his belief into action and refused to pay taxes because of the United States government’s involvement in the Mexican War, which Thoreau firmly believed was unjust. For his daring and unprecedented act of protest, he was thrown in jail. The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is a celebrated dramatic presentation of this famous act of civil disobedience and its consequences. Its poignant, lively, and accessible scenes offer a compelling exploration of Thoreau’s philosophy and life.
THE STORY: Produced around the country under the American Playwrights Theatre program, this drama opens with Thoreau in jail for refusing to pay taxes to a government conducting a war of aggression in Mexico, at midpoint shows Emerson visiting him, and ends on the morning of his release. Scenes portray his return from Harvard where he idolized Emerson, his attempt to establish a transcendentalist school, his career as a handyman and tutor in Emerson’s household, his romance and his friendship with an illiterate cellmate. The end is a grotesque dream in which the characters take up guises in a mortal assault on Mexico.
