It’s all about being in the room where it allegedly happened, and the 50 years of “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” performances at St. John’s Church possess that magical element.
Another layer of magic is being added. The upcoming performances, dubbed “Remember the Ladies,” will be gender-reversed productions of the “Liberty or Death” reenactment, using women drawn from Richmond’s theatre and film community.
They’ll be portraying nine delegates to the Second Virginia Convention, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. “But seen through a different lens and with the voices of women,” says Dean Knight, manager of educational programs and marketing for the St. John’s Church Foundation. “Although the actresses won’t be portraying these historical personages as women per se, the act of giving actresses the chance to speak these lines will be powerful.”
The 40-minute production, originally conceived during the pandemic, were scheduled for what would have been the 100th anniversary month and year of the adoption of the 19th Amendment. Although a production five years later loses some of the direct connection to that event, the point is still made.
“This production commemorates the right of women to vote in the U.S., and to ensure that women’s voices are heard,” Knight explains. “Now it will happen during the 250th anniversary year of the Second Virginia Convention itself. And it’ll open just days after the voters of Virginia elect a woman governor of the state for the first time.”
Jan Powell was brought on to direct, understanding that the role of the man Jefferson called “the greatest orator that ever lived” required just the right actor. Professional voice artist, actor, and media personality Bianca Bryan, whose voice is the first heard when livestreaming Virginia Public Media or during games as the voice of the Flying Squirrels, got the nod. “Bianca is dream casting for me as a director, “says Powell. “I’ve worked with her before, and I know she’ll bring deeply persuasive power, authority, intelligence, humor, and excitement to this role.”
The production’s goal is to express something that isn’t conveyed in the past usual male-centric versions. Although Powell frequently directs traditionally cast and costumed historical performances, she’s always curious about what would happen if we saw these events through the eyes of different types of people who have fresh perspectives. “It upends our biases and expectations about those who founded our nation,” she says. “We think we know all about them, but do we really know them as people and not just figureheads?”
Powell calls a show like “Hamilton” an excellent example of how actors from very different backgrounds and cultures can bring out facets of history we might not have recognized before. Hamilton had everything against him yet succeeded using his genius and grit. “The musical brings out the otherness of the pre-revolutionary European American inhabitants,” she says. “In just this way, with women holding this argument and saying these famous words, it’ll naturally provide a different frame for the history we otherwise believe we know well.”
Having seen the St John’s performance so many times, Powell sometimes felt a nagging sense of wanting to experience it from the perspective of everyone in America who didn’t have a voice at the time: women, the enslaved, farmers, laborers and craftspeople.
When she first heard pre-pandemic of the idea of all-female casting, she was thrilled, anticipating it would bring in the voices, and viewpoints of the voiceless. “I’ve envisioned adding those people to the performance, perhaps looking in through the windows,” she says. “Or even on the church grounds, discussing the argument amongst themselves and interacting with the audience as they enter and exit.”
The reenactments at St. John’s provide a way for people to directly connect with a major historical event, to even participate in it, as attendees are effectively portraying the fellow delegates of the nine people the actors portray. Audience members sit amongst the delegates and can support the speakers with comments and vote on Henry’s resolutions at the end.
The biggest challenge Powell anticipates is the possibility of audience bias against the gender-reversal production, which may dampen people’s experience of the show, or keep them from attending altogether. But this is Richmond, and we not only have important history here, we love our traditions. A classic becomes a classic because it has something to say to each generation over time, even with a uniquely modern outlook to it.
Agreeing that the effort to present a re-creation that closely resembles the times is worthwhile, Powell believes it’s also valuable to stage an experiment like this one. “When a woman says, ‘give me liberty or give me death,’ it has layers of fresh meaning for a modern audience,” she says. “We understand the words in a different way because we intimately know the wounds of the battle to create and keep a nation whose people are treated equally in law and in society, and how the struggle continues today.”
The promise of a nation founded on, and committed to, every citizen’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness can be felt more intensely and uniquely, Powell is convinced, when a traditionally undervalued member of our society speaks it. “Our country is now politically fraught and increasingly divided,” she says. “It’s so important to tell our story again and again, in different ways, so we remember who we are, and what we value.”
And, notably, to tell it in the room where it happened. Chances are, viewers can gain new understanding about the founders’ circumstances and goals, maybe even recognize themselves more in the representations of the men involved. Says Knight, “These performances of ‘Remember the Ladies’ will be a rare opportunity to give our traditional historical narrative a good shake, try it a new way and see what we discover.”
“Remember the Ladies” takes place Nov. 14-16 and 21-23 at various times at St. John’s Church, 2401 East Broad St. Tickets
