CATO (Remixed)

The Philadelphia Artists Collective returns to site-specific work as they present the world premiere, meta-theatrical adaptation of CATO (Remixed) in the historically significant site of Carpenters’ Hall.

Barrymore Award Winning Playwright Eli Lynn (The PAC’s Citrus Andronicus) adapts Joseph Addison’s original text, exploring the similarities between the tumultuous political landscape of Ancient Rome, Revolutionary-era America, and our current divided nation. Written in 1712, Addison’s play was frequently referenced by the Founding Fathers. The expressions “Give me liberty or give me death” and “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”, are paraphrased from Cato. Addison’s play offers an ahistorical, almost melodramatic portrayal of history, with Cato as the saintly exemplar of Roman patriotism and virtue. Lynn’s adaptation maintains much of Addison’s original text, but breaks apart the seams of the play with new text and metatheatricality. It gives space for the other characters – particularly the women and African characters – to dig into the history and rhetoric of Cato, and draws a sharp line from the centuries-old adulation of Rome through our own modern myths of America.

Staged in the room where the First Continental Congress convened, PAC’s original adaptation of Cato explores how political rhetoric has evolved (or not), and asks audiences to question who is worth putting on a pedestal, how we construct our own mythology, and whether we can build a future by looking backward.