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Imagine Martha Washington, George’s widow — sickly, dying, and scared out of her fevered mind that the enslaved people caring for her are plotting to kill her. And why not? In his will, America’s first president promised them freedom upon her death.
For them, sooner is certainly better than later, so it’s no wonder that in “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” Martha hallucinates, tormented by ghosts haunting her with the sorrow and grievous injustices she has caused.
Martha’s ghosts remind actor Kimberly S. Fairbanks of the ghosts that helped a terrified Ebenezer Scrooge come to terms with the nasty way he treated others in Dickens’ “Christmas Carol.”
In Wilma Theater’s production of “Miz Martha,” Fairbanks plays Ann, an enslaved person who is also Martha Washington’s half-sister. The play runs March 17 through April 5.
“That’s what I wrestled with in this show – you have ‘Christmas Carol’ and slavery,” Fairbanks said. “Martha’s going through her trials, seeing what her actions look like manifested through the other characters.”
It sounds very serious, and it is — albeit served up with lots of laughs. Can you picture the ghost of George Washington commenting on his wife’s derriere? “Checked and balanced,” he opines.
The play, an early work by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright and former Philadelphian James Ijames, comes at an interesting point in Philadelphia’s own history.
Exhibits at the President’s House in Independence National Park involving George Washington’s ownership of enslaved people are tied up in a legal battle. They were removed under order from the Trump administration, and partially restored after a scathing ruling by a federal judge in Philadelphia. Since then, an appellate court judge halted the restoration.
“There are people who say we need to forget the past and move forward, that we shouldn’t keep harping on the past,” Fairbanks said.
“But denying our past dooms us to repeat it, and also doesn’t allow us to acknowledge the work that was done, or realize that this country does belong to all of us, that we all labored to make this country what it is today — both the wrongs that were done and the great things that were accomplished.
“We all belong to this country,” she said, “and we all deserve to be acknowledged.”
History tells us that George Washington’s will included a provision to free the people he held in slavery upon his wife’s death. The prospect actually did scare Martha, according to a letter written by Abigail Adams, the second first lady. She “did not feel as tho her Life was safe in their Hands, many of whom would be told it was [in] their interest to get rid of her,” Adams wrote.
Eventually Martha did free the enslaved people owned by her husband — just over a year after he died and a year and change before she did.
Even so, she still owned enslaved people. That’s because she had brought enslaved people into the marriage — part of an inheritance from her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. They were married for seven years and had four children.
By law, those enslaved people could not be freed by either of the Washingtons, because they were part of an inheritance to be preserved for descendants of the Custis family, including Martha Washington’s children and grandchildren from her marriage to Custis. She and George had no children.
Martha Washington was not an abolitionist. She owned enslaved people throughout her life, from childhood until her death. Through George Washington, she hired slave catchers to pursue Ona Judge, who escaped from the Washingtons’ Philadelphia household in 1796. Martha also bequeathed one enslaved person to her grandson.
It’s not clear exactly where Fairbanks’ character fits into the complicated ownership structure. But the two women did have a relationship.
“As children,” Fairbanks said, “we accept the world that is around us. So, she’s being the playmate, the friend, the confidante — all the things we do as children that are fun. It’s not until she becomes older that Ann begins to understand,” Fairbanks said. “Now that you are older, you belong to her. You are not like her. I couldn’t imagine living that dynamic day-to-day.”
Fairbanks said her character’s relationship with Martha reminds her of the classic battered spouse syndrome. “A person can still love their abuser,” she said. “I think that comes from the relationship they had to have had as a child. So, she has this love/disgust relationship with Martha.”
The other enslaved people, Fairbanks said, don’t harbor any warm feelings for Martha, so Ann’s efforts to reach Martha through the affections they once shared are not appreciated.
“She’s kind of on an island by herself.”
Which brings us back to the “Christmas Carol”-like ghostly visitations.
“The visitations [Martha] has are similar to the way Ebenezer goes through and sees his past,” Fairbanks said. “They are showing the cruelty and ridiculousness of the way that slavery was enacted: `Look how wrong this was. You do have the power to free us.’”
“If there is any love, if there is any true relationship, [Ann believes] she can get Martha to do the right thing,” Fairbanks said. “She can help her do the right thing.”
The Wilma production, which premiered in 2014, is the second of three Ijames plays being performed in area theaters this season.
“Good Bones,” Ijames’ play about the impact of a stadium on a Black neighborhood, is finishing an extended run at the Arden Theatre Co. on March 22. On April 10, “Wilderness Generation,” a world premiere of a new Ijames’ play, opens at Philadelphia Theatre Co. with performances through May 3.
The three were part of a new experiment – a cross-theater subscription plan to see all three Ijames works. The easiest way to find the Citywide James Ijames pass is through the Philadelphia Visitor Center website, searching for Ijames. There is a second plan available for people who will miss “Good Bones” at the Arden.
So far, theatergoers have purchased more than 315 series passes – triple the original goal of 100, according to Billy Cook, a publicist from En Route, a marketing agency which helped devise the Ijames plan.
“The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” March 17-April 5, Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., Phila. 215-546-7824
