Event

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

Strange Bedfellows follows Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge on their way to a peace conference with the British on Staten Island in September of 1776. They stay at a small tavern overloaded with soldiers who on their way to join General Washington. Accommodations are so tight that Adams and Franklin must share a tiny bed. Franklin's proclivities toward nude air-bathing and in-depth discussion of personal hygiene and bodily functions make for entertaining history not found in school books. Anxieties are heightened as they discuss the disturbing direction the war is taking, the possibilities of their meeting the next day and the uncertain future of a nation not yet fully born a nation, unlike any other, founded on an idea. The men are portrayed, not as demi-gods or dry characters from a text book, but rather plain men, whose foibles, maladies and prejudices in the face of everyday situations make for humorous yet sometimes uncomfortable situations.