The David Ruggles Center for History and Education will present a concert reading of A Revelation of Character, a play by Patrick Gabridge, produced by Plays in Place, a Florence-based theater company. A Revelation of Character explores the fraught relationship between two important abolitionists, Lydia Maria Child and Maria Weston Chapman, in the 1830s and 1840s. Bound together by their passionate fight against slavery, their friendship is buffeted by politics and their own strong personalities. The division between them comes as the abolition movement itself splinters. Lydia Maria Child was a best-selling author turned abolitionist who lived in Florence from 1838-1841.

Originally commissioned by The Associates of the Boston Public Library, this play draws upon letters from the Boston Public Library’s Anti-Slavery Collection to illuminate the powerful women driving the abolition movement. Originally directed by Lisa Rafferty for production at the Boston Public Library, this production stars Amie Lytle as Lydia Maria Child, Jennifer Drummond as Maria Weston Chapman, and Emma Friend as Deborah Weston.  There will be a discussion following the play led by Lydia Moland, author of the most recent biography of Lydia Maria Child.