At a time when the federal government is actually trying to wipe away the nation’s history of slavery, the legend of John Brown’s 1859 abolitionist raid is ripe for re-examining. Amid today’s recent political violence, one of Brown’s famous statements struck me, as quoted in Traitors, a new play by Bruce Lawder: “The crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.”
Traitors is full of eloquent Brown quotes. That’s because of its premise: A group of residents of a mental health facility are putting on a play recounting Brown’s insurrection and subsequent trial. Sadly, the premise turns out to be empty. Traitors fails to illuminate Brown’s story either historically or through a psychological lens.
John Brown & Co.
As the residents take turns speechifying in the roles of various players in the John Brown drama, we look for but fail to find insights into who these troubled players are, the nature of their illnesses, even why they’re staging this particular story. Different types of outbursts and withdrawals are all that distinguish one from another.
A partial exception is Travis Bergmann, who plays the resident portraying Brown. The abolitionist as interpreted by this nameless sufferer has a quiet, stiff sort of dignity otherwise lacking in the characterizations. Bergmann also has the play’s only actual dramatic scene when, towards the end, his wife Mary (an effective (under the circumstances) Mackenzie Robin Krestul) visits him in jail as he awaits execution. (Brown was hanged in December 1859, shortly after the Harpers Ferry raid.) Still, this John Brown remains one-dimensional, the character evoking little pathos or human interest.
Play Within a Play
Of course, the conceit of a play within a play poses an extra challenge for any cast. But whatever talents these actors have are not drawn out through John DeBenedetto’s ungainly direction of a stilted script. In fact there’s no indication of why Lawder set the play in a residence for the mentally ill. Their “production” could have just as easily come from a ward of prisoners, a classroom of young children, or a gearbox of Mechanicals.
Perhaps the playwright had in mind a parallel between the players’ illnesses and the mental illness that seemed to run in Brown’s family. If so, nothing is made of it. Brown’s anti-slavery views were considered so radical at the time that he was accused of insanity. But as one scholar has written, Brown, “so often maligned as a demented dreamer was in fact one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation.” There’s nothing demented about this play’s characterization of Brown; quite the contrary. John Brown was principled, and uncommonly brave. That combination was at the center of his importance. But he deserves better than this flavorless concoction.
Traitors at the American Theatre of Actors runs through Oct. 5, 2025.