Iron Age Theatre Presents

Directed by Randall Wise
May 1,2,3 & 7,8,9,10 & 28,29,30,31
June 4,5,6,7

Tickets: $10 &$12
Showtimes 7:30pm (4pm matinee on Sunday)

Featuring:
Ray Saraceni as Montressor
Mason Kardon as Nathan Hale

at Historic Fort Mifflin
on the Delaware River in
Philadelphia
For tickets and information call (215) 685-4192

A New play "The Interrogation of Nathan Hale" will be performed at Philadelphia's Revolutionary War National Historic Landmark Fort Mifflin.

The last hours of American patriot and spy Nathan Hale are dramatized in the powerful new play "The Interrogation of Nathan Hale" opening May 1 at Philadelphia's historic Fort Mifflin. The play is a moving account of twenty-one year old Hale's final hours before he was hung by the British army. As he went to the gallows, Hale said "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

In the play Nathan Hale is brought manacled and chained to the quarters of British Captain John Montresor to steel himself for his impending execution. Hale, who was a Captain in the Continental army, volunteered to try and find out how strong the British army was after General Washington pleaded for men to take on the dangerous spy mission "in this darkest hour of the Revolution."

Montresor, intrigued by the bright Yale-educated school teacher turned soldier and now spy, pleads with him to sign a pledge of loyalty to the crown before it is to late. As deserters and criminals ahead of hilin are flogged, shot or hung, Hale and Montresor match wits about the war, what it means and costs to be a soldier, and why Hale is willing to die for his new country.

Reviews:

To Die For: An engrossing play about the last house of an American patriot, staged in a venue that couldn't be more apt
It's drama even before the play starts.
Canadian geese strut in the dusk, gigantic foliage looms up silloetted against the sky, and old brick walls, solid with the centuries, suddenly appear beyond the moat choked with huge water lillies.
Randall Wise, producer of site sensational shows found a fascinating script by David Stanley Ford and then Found the perfect venue for it.
One of the forts 18th century garrisons, complete with roaring fire and authentic bunk beds is the stage. Sets don't get more realistic than this.
we sit on chairs and watch a debate between captured colonial patriot Nathan Hale and Capt. John Montresor, the same British officer who designed and destroyed the place.
Under Randall Wise's skillful direction, we watch Hale discover the truth of his short life.
Ray Saraceni plays Montresor with all stops out: Hungry, huge, sweaty and loud, blindingly articulate and manipulatively honest, he gives a spectacular performance.
The Interrogation of Nathan Hale leaves us with important questions lingering in our minds as we walk across the straw strewn stone path, through the forts ironclad door into the dark night, the modern America Nathan Hale gave his one life for. Worth the trip in a number of ways.
Toby Zinman
City Paper

Now, the company (Iron Age Theatre), which has been producing plays in Norristown has returned to another Philadelphia landmark with another play based on a historical event. Unlike Tunnel at Eastern State, The Interrogation of Nathan Hale did not actually take place at Fort Mifflin, but its colonial-era ambience and historical relevance to one of the play's characters make it a pertinent setting for a play about the final hours of the famous school-teacher-turned-revolutionary, who was caught spying and executed by the British in 1775.
It allows room for a no holds barred headlong performance by Ray Saraceni as the cynical, arrogant and aggressive Montressor. (As is usually the case, the devil proves much more fascinating than the angel.)
Saraceni's last major role was the portrayal of Roy Cohn in the 1997 Villanova University production of Angels in America, and he brings to the patriot-baiting Montressor the same ferocious energy he brough to the Red-baiting, vicious McCarthyite Cohn. Under the direction of Randall Wise, Saraceni offers a mercurial, engrossing performance.
Doug Keating
Philadelphia Inquirer

Kardon is a joy to watch as Hale's pious resolve breaks down into agonized self-revelation.
The production would stand well on its own in any venue, boasting as it does the solid performances typical of Iron Age's work, but is benefits from another Iron Age trademark: environment. Like Tunnel, which was performed at Eastern State Penitentiary, The Interrogation of Nathan Hale has as its venue a site both evocative and appropriate - historic Fort Mifflin on the Delaware.
Director Randall Wise stages the production in a room of the soldier's barracks within the fort, and coupled with the environment of the fort itself, the setting's sense of history supports the strong performances in ways no stage set ever could. A fire crackls in the hearth and during the course of the show the last hour of daylight fades away outside the room's windows. If you've ever wondered what people are talking about when they enthuse over successful "site theater," Iron Age's Interrogation of Nathan Hale is an ideal example of how environment influences and frames live theater.
Greg Miller
Arcade

Information about Historic Fort Mifflin

Fort Mifflin is the site of the greatest bombardment of the American Revolution. In the fall of 1777 British tro were closing in on General George

Washington's Continental Army, defeating the Americans at the battle of Brandywine. Meanwhile a 250 ship fleet with supplies and troops for the British Army was sailing up the Delaware and had to safely get past Fort Mifflin to provide the pursuing British army the men and material for a fmal, crushing blow. Washington desperately needed to slow down these reinforcements, and ordered the small garrison at Fort Mifflin to buy the ragged Continentals time, "hold to the last extremity" Washington said.

Under constant fire, the British surrounded the little fort with artillery batteries, and proceeded to try and blow the garrison to rubble. A rain of shells fell on the fort for weeks killing hundreds of the American soldiers desperately trying to keep the fort's own guns firing back. Finally, out of aminunition, the fort fell, but not before buying enough time for Washington's army to retreat to Valley Forge. Due to lack of supplies from the fleet, the British Army declined to pursue. Washington reported to congress "...Fort Mifflin was evacuated, but only after a defense that does credit to American arms, and will ever reflect the highest honor upon the officers and men of the garrison."