REVIEW: The Spirit of 76 at Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia
An interesting premise gets mired by an uneven tone and sour messaging.
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the voting on and signing of the Declaration of Independence. It’s a momentous occasion, and has inspired a swath of productions and events happening throughout the city of Philadelphia to honor and celebrate this historic event; one of these productions is the new play The Spirit of 76. Written by Miriam Colvin and Jackson Pavlik, it tells the story of a theatre company presenting a play to commemorate the 250th Anniversary in Independence Hall, and the drama that happens after a “controversial” recast due to an actor’s injury.
The recast at the center of this show within a show is the role of Thomas Jefferson. Originally played by a white actor, the production team decides to bump up Hannah, a black woman, who was already playing Samuel Adams, to now play Thomas Jefferson, when the original actor breaks their leg...literally. This could of course be a fascinating casting choice, standing in sharp juxtaposition and contrast with what is historically known about Jefferson, and his very sordid participation in slavery. This could be a central theme of the show, and explore the complicated feelings of a black woman inhabiting the role of a man who was a noted slave owner. Confoundingly, these ideas are barely referenced in this piece, which remains shockingly unsure of what it wants to say about the subject matter.
With a roughly three hour runtime, this long show remains surface level: surprising in it’s ineptness at tackling the subjects it brings up. The main plot of several white members of the cast now deciding that a black woman couldn’t possibly play Thomas Jefferson (but again, are fine with her playing Samuel Adams, for some reason), and threatening to walk out of the production if their demands are not met, is not uninteresting, but it is handled in such an infuriating way. This show allows its white characters to perform microaggression after microaggression, with little to no resistance from other characters. It is frustrating to watch, as any sane point made by a character is quickly rebutted and then abandoned. There’s an entire section where the characters vent about their issues, and the audience is suddenly inflicted with opinions on things such as pronouns, land acknowledgements, food banks, and countless other issues that detract from the main narrative...to what end? I’m honestly unsure of the purpose here other than to stir up controversy and rile up the audience. Is this a narrative piece of theatre, or a crazed social media outrage post that somehow made it onto a stage instead of a phone screen?
The script is also riddled with character inconsistencies, misogyny, homophobia, and attempts at humor that feel out of place or worse: insulting. It cannot find a coherent tone, and feels like it’s simultaneously attempting to emulate both a gritty drama and The Play that Goes Wrong.
The end of the show is equally infuriating. The five white characters who have threatened to leave decide that they will perform, on the condition that every mention of slavery is removed from the script. They then bully the three other white characters and three black characters into signing this “pledge.” Is the theme of compromise as a way forward inherently bad? No. Is it naive? Maybe. Is it even the theme of this piece at all? Unclear. Besides, if the hypothetical compromise is with people who would rather act like slavery shouldn’t be acknowledged as ingrained in this country’s past, especially as we near the 250th Anniversary of this nation, then it should be obvious that those aren’t people to be compromised with.
This whole “no-slavery” debacle is followed by a transition into the curtain speech for their fictitious play, that included audience participation, asking people to speak the Pledge of Allegiance and sing the National Anthem. Given the tense political climate today, on top of the politically charged experience collectively witnessed thus far, to say this moment was uncomfortable for the audience would be an understatement. (This author did not stand for either, as it felt extremely awkward and wrong to do so. I heard other audience members walking out after, talking about how unnecessary this moment was)
Then the show ends, with a black woman playing Thomas Jefferson AND mentioning slavery, which is seemingly supposed to make the previous three hours of her being repeatedly humiliated okay. She has persevered, like black women ALWAYS have to, and fought back...for but a sliver of human dignity. To me, there’s no lesson here. It feels more like a slap in the face for how we treat black women: in fictional form AND reality. Honestly, if the goal was to highlight the hypocrisy of how black women/performers/characters are treated, then perhaps we could have had a really interesting play. Sadly, that level of nuance is not on display here.
There were minimal sets, costumes or lighting, and while the performances were fine, they were all overshadowed by a script that was a mess. The show taking place in historic Carpenter’s Hall was an interesting choice, but again that wasn’t really utilized in any discernible way.
In a way, The Spirit of 76 is very much like the upcoming celebration of the voting on and signing of the Declaration of Independence: intrinsically and messily tied to racism, and something I wouldn’t look forward to attending.