Red and blue light pierce the darkness of the black box theater. From the right, a fiery red brings attention to a father whose patriotic fervor drives him and his son apart. From the left, a bright blue shines on an attorney prosecutor fighting alongside the son for justice.
PHS’ advanced theater program opened its latest production Fatherland ten days ago, a verbatim play drawn from real court documents surrounding the January 6th Capitol riot.
The play ran from April 1st-3rd at PHS and compiled real trial transcripts into a staged drama, with every line of dialogue taken directly from courtroom proceedings. The production also incorporated audio recordings from the actual events, namely excerpts from several of Trump’s speeches justifying the events on January 6th.
“There’s no fluff, there’s nothing made up,” said Sacha Andrews, a PHS senior and member of the advanced acting class who directed the show.
“Everything is taken from the transcripts.”
The play follows a father and son whose relationship fractures over seven years, from the early days of the Trump presidency through January 6th, 2021 and finally the fallout continues today. The actors were tasked with portraying real people involved in the legal proceedings, requiring extensive research into the actual cases, Andrews said.
“The story actually takes place over seven years and you can’t really tell because it’s a slow descent,” said PHS senior Elisha Bell, who performed in the show and also sourced the production’s audio clips. “That’s kind of what the script was doing.”
Bell said researching the audio recordings gave her a deeper understanding of the timeline portrayed onstage, even if that research came with its challenges.
“I had to listen to a bunch of Trump speeches, which, a little painful, but someone had to do it,” Bell said.
The production’s intimate staging in PHS’s black box theater was a deliberate creative choice. Andrews said the format was central to her vision from the start.
“It’s not tarnished or dated by the author’s perspective on the event,” Andrews said.
Audiences responded strongly to the production. Bell said multiple audience members told her they were moved to tears, though she admitted the emotional weight was harder to feel from inside the performance.
“I’ve done it so many times that I don’t really have an emotional reaction to any moment in it,” Bell said. “But it was nice to hear that people were really engaged with the show.”
PHS junior Jonathan Phmah said that one of his favorite features of Fatherland was the unique multicolored lighting.
“The choice of lighting was very impactful with the contrast of red and blue whenever the father and son were in scenes together,” Phmah said.
“I like how they used that color to represent political views.”
Fatherland closed with its final performance last Friday night. It was produced under the supervision of PHS drama teacher Kim Taylor. The black box theater is dark now. The red and blue lights are off. But the precedent of Fatherland continues in everyone lucky enough to be a part of it.
