The Return of Benjamin Lay

Mark Povinelli plays the remarkable Benjamin Lay, a 4-foot-tall Quaker who moved to Pennsylvania from England by way of Barbados and established himself as one of the 18th century's most fervent abolitionists. (His antislavery book All Slave Keepers That keep the Innocent in Bondage was published by Benjamin Franklin in 1737.) A collaboration between the playwright Naomi Wallace (One Flea Spare) and the historian and activist Marcus Rediker, the play debuted in London in 2023, directed by Ron Daniels; it now hops the Pond to make its U.S. premiere at the Sheen Center, a project of the Archdiocese of New York that focuses on works that engage with questions of religious faith. (A companion exhibition about Lay's life is also at the Sheen Center from March 7 through April 13, and is open between the hours of 10am and 5pm.)