GREENFIELD — A play that examines the lives of everyday people in Greenfield and Deerfield during the American Revolution will be read on Sunday, April 19 — 251 years to the date after the Battle of Lexington and Concord — and again on Sunday, May 3.
The play, titled “Revolution in the Valley: A Tale of Two Towns,” “takes [the audience] from April 19, 1775, to [the] years beyond the revolution as our towns were recovering,” according to playwright Kay Lyons. While there is some historical fiction intertwined into the story, most of the play consists of real history and real events.
The first reading of the play this Sunday at 2 p.m. will take place at the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew at 8 Church St. in Greenfield, and the second reading on May 3 will take place at the First Church of Deerfield (also known as the Brick Church) at 71 Old Main St., also at 2 p.m. The choice of venues comes because “churches in those days were the meetinghouses,” Lyons said.
Lyons, a retired children’s librarian in Greenfield who studied theater in college, said she hopes attendees walk away from the readings having learned something. She said that when people look back on the American Revolution, they often think that it was a black-and-white, good-versus-evil conflict, but she argues “it just was not that straightforward.”
Greenfield was a supply hub during the American Revolution, and Lyons explained that both Greenfield and Deerfield were microcosms of the conflicting views of English settlers on the brink of revolution.
The cast is made up of members of the congregation of the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew, and the congregation of the First Church of Deerfield, as well as friends of Lyons who have collaborated with her on theater productions in the past.
Carol Aleman of the Historical Society of Greenfield was the first person to approach Lyons. Aleman provided some information from “Willard’s History of Greenfield,” penned by Greenfield resident David Willard in 1838, and Lyons “basically took it away from there,” doing a lot of the brunt work of compiling the history of the two towns.
“[Lyons] has woven the story a bit so that there is humor in it. There’s a lot of action that you might imagine,” Aleman said. “Because we’ve trusted [Lyons] with this kind of thing before, I knew I could trust her again to come up with something that would be lively and yet resonate with the audience.”
As this is a play reading, most of the cast members remain stationary throughout the performance, with very few props and movements. There is music, including a choir, cello and recorder. There are some topical props, such as “an old-school pulpit” that a character comes down from, according to Reynolds Whalen, who is playing the role of Willard. “Willard’s History of Greenfield” guides the narration of the play, Lyons said.
Whalen noted “it’s kind of interesting to think that the people in the play could’ve been in [the Greenfield church], or at least their direct decadents.”
These play readings are in addition to the Historical Society of Greenfield’s regular speaker series, with four additional events being held beginning in May.
Upon seeing the play readings, Lyons feels audience members may come away feeling like times then, in 1775, are a lot like the times now.
“Just like now, [they were] kind of in [their] own bubble,” she explained. “They [still] did have to live together.”
