A New Era

Play (2026)
by Miranda Austen ADEkoje
Directed by Summer L. Williams
Dramaturgy by Lizzy Cooper Davis
Company One Theatre
produced in partnership with the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture
The Strand Theater
Dorchester, MA
July 18 – August 8, 2026

With Patrice Jean-Baptiste (Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin), Aislinn Brophy (Victoria Earle Matthews), Sydney Alicia Jackson (Margaret Murray Washington), MaConnia Chesser (Gertrude Sampson), Frances Domond (Anna Julia Cooper), Aliyah Harris (Florida Ruffin Ridley), Tolu Asade (Isabel), Regine Vital (Fannie Barrier Williams)

It is 1895 and Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (Patrice Jean-Baptiste) is the head of a Boston chapter of a black women’s club and the editor of an influential newsletter entitled The Woman’s Era. There is a movement afoot to both coordinate black women’s clubs around the country and to unite their mission with the women’s suffragist movement generally. Josephine hopes that her newsletter will gain national traction, and conceives herself to become a national leader of the black women’s suffrage movement.

In discussion with others, notably with Victoria Earle Matthews (Aislinn Brophy), who is an astute observer of women’s political movements at large and thoughtful about the role of the black suffrage movement in the larger context, Josephine gets something of a comeuppance. Victoria argues that someone with a more visible national presence like Margaret Murray Washington (Sydney Alicia Jackson), Booker T. Washington’s wife, would be a more suitable national leader.

Also, there is a lot to deal with within the suffragist movement as a whole, notably that there is a fair amount of support for segregationist thinking, which Josephine stridently denounces. But, as others like Victoria argue, it is important for the suffragist movement as a whole to think in practical political terms about its immediate end of achieving the vote for women and for the black women’s caucus to swallow some of its feelings about racism within the movement in order to help realize that common goal.

This nicely informative production is filled with history and gives a notably helpful and interesting picture of how the suffragist movement among black women in Boston developed. For one not well versed in this history, there might be a little too much to swallow in one dramatic gulp. One certainly gets the main ideas about the suffragist movement as a whole and the challenges of black women rising up for their own particular interests in connection with rising up for women’s rights in general.

The character of Josephine focuses these challenges in a vivid way, and the characters of Victoria and Margaret focus the oppositional concerns with complementary and significant drama. The three actors – Patrice Jean-Baptiste as Josephine, Aislinn Brophy as Victoria, and Sydney Alicia Jackson as Margaret all do a very capable job of conveying their characters and the important oppositional viewpoints they represent.

The play is interesting and informative but perhaps a bit broad-ranging in conveying the drama and significance of its major foci. Though most of the characters are no doubt of historical significance, there a few too many characters in play, and though they add texture to the narrative, there is somewhat, at times, too much going on to distill out of their multiple interactions the significance of the main action. Though all of the actors do a fine job, there are some roles that provide more narrative filler than substance and the play might benefit from a bit of tautening by shrinking the cast just a bit.

There is some lovely contemporary dancing done by the entire cast at the outset, in the middle, and at the end. Set to modern soul music, it’s nice to watch, but a little disorienting for a play set in 1895. Removing the dance element in the middle mike make sense for maintaining some of the historic tone.

Company One is a small theater company with a great sense of social mission and its earnest productions add immensely to the artistic landscape in Boston. This very interesting historical production adds to that sense of mission with its focus on local history and is much worth one’s attention in the general context of socially responsive theater. Company One has a very generous and wonderful pay-what-you-can policy, enabling all to attend.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)