FRANKLINLAND to Extend Run at Lantern Theater Company
Lloyd Suh's comedy stars Frank X, Dave Johnson, and Gavin Spiewak at St. Stephen's Theater.
Lantern Theater Company announced that its 2025/26 production of Franklinland by Lloyd Suh will extend its run through Sunday, June 14, 2026, to meet demand from audiences and student groups.
The Lantern’s production of Franklinland is Barrymore Recommended. Presented at St. Stephen’s Theater in Center City Philadelphia and directed by Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon, Franklinland features longtime Lantern collaborators Frank X and Dave Johnson, alongside Gavin Spiewak in his Lantern debut. A complete schedule of performances and audience enrichment events is included in the fact sheet below.
Benjamin Franklin played many roles: publisher, inventor, political agitator, diplomat – and he wanted his son to follow him into the sciences. When William rebels and becomes the Royal Governor of New Jersey, the stage is set for a father-son conflict of international proportions. Join us for the Philadelphia premiere of Lloyd Suh's endearing and insightful play of revolutionary consequences, in the city where it happened.
In preparing to direct Franklinland, the Lantern’s Artistic Director Charles McMahon immersed himself in all things Franklin. McMahon’s observations inform the Lantern’s production: “Benjamin Franklin is a fascinating riddle: a man who had no formal schooling after age eleven who went on to found the University of Pennsylvania. He became one of the world’s greatest scientists, writers, businessmen, statesmen, and the founder of innumerable civic institutions which still operate some hundreds of years after his death. Perhaps his greatest invention was himself: sui generis American renaissance man. It is understandable that his son might find him a hard act to follow. Lloyd Suh has given us a refreshing new take on this icon of history, juxtaposing his role as founding father with that of father to a foundling. Franklinland is a gently comic story of a father and son trying and often failing to connect as they end up on opposite sides of a great struggle.”
Lantern Theater Company will explore the multiple worlds of Franklinland on its Lantern Searchlight on Medium, available online at lanterntheater.org/searchlight. Articles will be published throughout the production’s run, including background on the play, its themes, and behind-the-scenes conversations with the artists.
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