Bastards

Bastards, a new historical drama, explores the fractured bond between America’s most revered Shakespearean actor, Edwin Booth, and his infamous brother, President Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. On New Year’s Day, 1892, a dying Edwin attempts a séance to contact his late wife - but accidentally conjures Wilkes. Trapped together, the estranged brothers are forced to relive their shared past: a childhood marked by violence, illegitimacy, and the weight of their father’s theatrical legacy; a bitter rivalry forged onstage and off; and the ideological divide that changed the course of American history. As the past and present collide, Wilkes delights in dismantling Edwin’s legacy, while Edwin struggles to separate the brother he loved from the killer he became. But as the séance spirals further out of control, it becomes clear that this is no simple haunting - it is a reckoning. In Bastards, legacy isn’t given. It’s inherited, contested, and impossible to escape.

Company

Olivia Merritt and LauraAnn Peterson

Venue

Lion & Unicorn Theatre

Ages

12 and over