One Destiny at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC

Lincoln's Box at Ford's Theatre

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC on April 14th, 1865 is etched in our nation’s history.  The event so shook the country that performances at the theatre were not resumed for more than a century following Lincoln’s death (the site was subsequently used as a warehouse and office building but was not renovated as a theatre until 1968.)

Last Friday, during our four day trip to our nation’s capital with our granddaughter, Naomi, we all visited the Ford’s Theatre Museum (a huge collection of Lincoln memorabilia housed in the theatre’s basement) and attended a performance of Our Destiny, a short play by Richard Hellesen that explores the events that led up to Lincoln’s assassination.  The play, staged in the renovated theatre,

Stephen F. Schmidt and Michael Bunce in ONE DESTINY

is a cleverly constructed two hander in which two eye-witnessesses to the assassination - Harry Ford (Stephen F. Schmidt), the theatre’s co-owner, and Harry Hawk (Michael Bunce), a prominent actor of the time - try to make sense of what happened and struggle with the question of whether they might have been able to have done something to have prevented history’s having taken the course it did.

The play is entertaining, quite professional in its rendition, and educational.  It wasn’t one of the highlights of our trip but it certainly was worth seeing.