CATO (Remixed) Comes to The Philadelphia Artists' Collective

The Philadelphia Artists' Collective will return to its roots with a bold, site-specific theatrical production, CATO (Remixed), opening May 1 and running through May 18 at the historically significant Carpenters' Hall. This world premiere adaptation, written by Barrymore Award-winning playwright Eli Lynn (The PAC's Citrus Andronicus), breathes new life into Joseph Addison's 1712 play Cato: A Tragedy, drawing compelling parallels between the political upheavals of Ancient Rome, Revolutionary-era America, and our contemporary divided nation.

CATO (Remixed) explores timeless questions about power, virtue, and political rhetoric, recontextualizing Addison's text in the very room where the First Continental Congress met, just steps away from Independence Hall. In doing so, it invites modern audiences to reflect on the legacy of political language and the historical figures who shape our myths and ideals.

The original Cato: A Tragedy was revered by George Washington and the rest of the Founding Fathers, with lines such as "Give me liberty or give me death" and "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country"-now iconic-coming from Addison's text. But Lynn's adaptation doesn't merely restate the past. By breaking apart and remixing the original, Lynn reimagines the story, shining a light on the voices of characters historically marginalized or ignored. In particular, the women and African characters are given space to interrogate the rhetoric of Cato and challenge who and what we choose to venerate.

"Cato was once hailed as a paragon of virtue, but how do we understand his legacy today?" said Lynn. "This adaptation asks who we pedestal, why, and whether these "pillars" are actually load-bearing. It's about how we create and maintain our own mythology-and how it shapes our worldviews, even centuries after the fact."

In Lynn's CATO (Remixed), the stoic Cato, who in Addison's play is presented as an almost saintly figure of Roman patriotism, is deconstructed. The characters, particularly the women and African characters, take center stage in ways they were denied in the original. Their perspectives challenge the political and historical narratives often told by the powerful.

In keeping with PAC's commitment to immersive, site-specific work, the play, directed by PAC's Producing Artistic Director Damon Bonetti, will be staged in the intimate setting of Carpenters' Hall, where echoes of the past permeate the present. The historic space offers a fitting backdrop for this conversation about the intersection of political power, legacy, and rhetoric-one that remains relevant to this day.