CATO: The Play that Made a Nation Staged Readings and Conversations

In the spring of 1778 the continental army endures the harsh winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Smallpox, disunity, and privation threaten the survival of the army and the new nation.  In this time of crisis, General Washington defies Congress and orders the performance of a play for his soldiers.  This play, Joseph Addison’s and Richard Steele’s Cato, follows the last days of Cato the Younger as he resists Julius Caesar’s rise to power. The popular work offered a model for civic virtue that inspired America’s Founding Fathers.

This abridged version of the original script emphasizes Cato’s themes of liberty, duty, honor, and the conflict between personal conviction and political expediency.

FREE VETERANS DAY CELEBRATION

Performances in Founders Auditorium:

Sunday, November 8 | 2:30 p.m. 

Wednesday, November 11 | 6:30 p.m. (Veteran’s Day)