One thing I did to celebrate America 250 was go to see the original play Liberty Madness in Perth Amboy. The play was performed at Abundant Life , the former Temple Beth Mordecai, which is a beautiful space and was perfect for a pop up play. I enjoyed walking to the High St venue to see a cool touring play about Perth Amboy history. The production is by the theater group Thinkery & Verse. The play is free and was funded by Middlesex County.

I really love how we know our local history and celebrate it. The play is about William Franklin remaining loyal to the Crown during the Revolution and the fights he had with this dad Ben Franklin and his ultimate arrest and imprisonment. He was the last NJ Royal Governor and the mansion he lived in called Proprietary House is on Kearny Ave in Perth Amboy. It’s a treasured place where you can attend events like re-enactments and ghost tours and tales of hauntings. The house is currently under renovations by the State hopefully to reopen this summer.

Liberty Madness has a great cast and characters, cool costumes, period original music, original songs and uses shadow and illumination to tell the story. It also has ghosts and hauntings. Im no spoiler pig, I promise you will enjoy.

There are upcoming performances July 4, July 5, July 11 &12- not in Perth Amboy, but traveling to East Jersey Old Town Village in Piscataway, which is also a really cool venue. Like visiting Sleepy Hollow.

I recommend this play to anyone, it was really creative and captivating. I can see it traveling to places like Litchfield, CT, also lovers of history and where William Franklin spent time in jail for being a loyalist and traitor. The jail became a cool bar.

The organizer for Abundant Life, MaryBeth Olive, says she will do more pop up events. Cool.

Shadow and illumination photo courtesy of New Brunswick Today

Review by Caroline Pozycki, Perth Amboy Now Editor