If you were enslaved during the 18th century, would you consider the Founding Fathers any differently than someone in Auschwitz would consider Mengele or Hitler? "In the Boat," boldly addresses our great American capacity for selective memory, especially regarding the misplaced adoration of our founders (including Alexander Hamilton who bought slaves for his wife's family).

"In the Boat" reveals the love between two of George Washington's slaves. Then, in alternating scenes, the black actors double as Martha Washington and three of the Founding Fathers. Taking place in 1796, it is a time when the country is in the midst of a great partisan divide not unlike our own. A time when "fake news" first becomes ascendant and, through the secret bidding of Hamilton and Jefferson, the "scandal-monger" is created, emboldening both sides with talk of secession and civil war.

"In the Boat" does not hold any punches. The Founding Fathers do not dance and sing happy songs. Rather, their actual words, actions and complicity are put on display without mitigation. But, In the Boat, is also a love story imbued with a dark comedic sensibility that buoys the lovers as they navigate the cruel waves of their storm tossed world. A tale of slaves and slaveholders, "In the Boat" will challenge what we think we know and what we pretend to forget.

SYNOPSIS:
The archetypal painting, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” has been hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than a century. In it, there is a black soldier rowing beside the General’s knee. Who was this man? Many have claimed him to be Prince Whipple, a slave owned by William Whipple, one of the Founding Fathers. Recent research, however, has shown that neither master nor slave was with Washington at the time of the crossing. Other black men have been suggested including James Brown, an aide to Washington, who founded the saloon now called the “Ear Inn” in NYC. It’s hard to get a bead on the truth when the painting itself was created over seventy years after the fact and, like most mythic remembrances, is riddled with inaccuracies. But the one thing we can be sure of is the fact that there were black men who fought for “freedom” during the war only to remain enslaved after it was won.
Inspired by that unknown black man in Washington’s boat, this play attempts to explore the ongoing adoration of the so called, “Founding Fathers,” and our complicity in adhering to those myths that seek to subvert and bury the truth at the expense of all those who have suffered and continue to suffer.
The cast is composed of five black actors and one white actor. In alternating scenes, the black actors playing slaves double their roles as Martha Washington and three of the Founding Fathers. The one white role is based on the historic figure, James Callender, who was traditionally disparaged as a drunk “scandal-monger” and dismissed by historians despite of (and because of) his speaking truth to power and revealing the underlying corruption and mendacity of Washington, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/francis-levy/steve-romagnolis-skip-to-_b_9272616.html

Thomas and Chavonne, a bi-racial couple, decide to visit his old friend, Simon, who Thomas hasn’t seen in years. Simon lives with Yo-Yo, a young woman Simon brought back from Africa and married. As the two couples become acquainted, they proceed to heavily drink and get high while debating such topics as: genital mutilation, altruism, affirmative action, Otta Benga (African pygmy who was housed in the Bronx Zoo monkey house), the nature of evil, the suffering of God, and the illusions that make romantic love possible. As the evening progresses, however, the philosophical conversation turns sinister as secrets are revealed and mayhem is unleashed.

IAGO is a reconfiguration of "Othello" set in the tumultuous and brutal world of American boxing. A true anatomy of a psychopath, IAGO promises to be timeless yet timely, especially so in our new world of “alternative facts” and demagoguery.