The British Quaker who challenged Ben Franklin is back at Quintessence Theatre

“You’re looking at me but you’re not seeing.”

Benjamin Lay never let a confrontation go. The historic, revolutionary figure, with a sharp social conscience and unwavering commitment to justice, was fueled by righteous rage — but most people, whether during his 18th-century lifetime or today, have only focused on his 4-foot-tall body.

They looked at him, but they never really saw him.

Quintessence Theatre’s current production, The Return of Benjamin Lay, running through May 18, is a rousing effort to get modern audiences to see the British abolitionist Quaker as a prescient leader, in the vein of Hamilton.

And similar to Alexander Hamilton, Lay was a vexing force who challenged authority in Philadelphia — including founding father Benjamin Franklin.

In recent years, Lay has become a subject of renewed fascination, thanks largely to the 2017 biography, The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist, by University of Pittsburgh professor Marcus Rediker. (Some Philadelphians have even called for City Hall’s statue of William Penn, an enslaver like Franklin, to be replaced with one of Lay.)

The play, cowritten by Rediker and U.K.-based playwright Naomi Wallace, is set at Abington Friends Meeting, where Lay was a controversial member, cast out after staging several inflammatory protests against the hypocrisy of Quaker enslavers.

Lay’s overlooked legacy — and flair for the dramatic — provides good fodder for this one-man show starring screen and stage actor Mark Povinelli, who plays the activist with verve and vigor.

Helmed by longtime Royal Shakespeare Company director Ron Daniels, the theatrical retelling spotlights a newly revived Lay as he petitions Abington Friends, in this case, the audience, to allow him back into the religious society. (In 2018, Abington Friends honored Lay and his wife, Sarah, with a headstone and historical marker, naming him a “Friend of the Truth” as reconciliation.)

Lay recounts key moments from his life, like when he kidnapped a young boy for a day to demonstrate to his slaveholding parents the pain of separating enslaved families. Povinelli balances Lay’s unapologetic radicalism with earnestness and levity, at times breaking the fourth wall like a stand-up comedian and prompting responses from the audience.

His message resonated profoundly on opening night, when Quintessence Theatre leaders announced they were one of thousands of organizations reeling from the Trump administration’s rescinding of federal funds awarded from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Hearing Lay rant about justice felt almost cathartic. At one point he said, “A tongue is for saying no when a no is required.” Applause erupted.

With sparse staging and little sound, the production would’ve benefited from more scenes to break up the monologue, despite Povinelli’s entertaining delivery and impressive endurance. For a show set in a Quaker meetinghouse, there was little room for silence; maybe a future iteration could incorporate that kind of reflection.

One of Lay’s most memorable protests was also one of the messiest: He stabbed an animal bladder hidden in a book and sprayed his fellow Quakers with red pokeberry juice, underscoring that they had blood on their hands for their complicity in slavery.

It served as a climactic finale on stage as Povinelli barely flinched while fake blood poured down his face and across his white blouse. (No splash zone here.) It’s strikingly powerful, thanks to light designer Yichen Zhou.

Hopefully, Lay will return again, in this production and beyond, as his story feels ripe for further interpretation, whether it’s a movie or a larger play. It would certainly be entertaining to follow his extreme acts with scene partners — and it would be especially worth it to see Franklin’s reaction when Lay calls him out.

(Community/Arts)

A rousing effort to get modern audiences to see Benjamin Lay, the British abolitionist Quaker as a prescient leader, in the vein of Hamilton. Similar to Alexander Hamilton, Lay was a vexing force who challenged authority in Philadelphia — including that of founding father Benjamin Franklin.

⌚️ Through May 18, 📍 7137 Germantown Ave., 🌐 quintessencetheatre.org

Theater reviews are produced independently by The Inquirer without editorial input by their sponsor, Visit Philadelphia.