Timeliness is a virtue, and Thomas Klingenstein’s Douglass, which had its world-premiere this past summer at the Theater Wit in Chicago, captures the zeitgeist of our period of increasing racial tension. Through Douglass, Klingenstein hopes to reinvigorate our contemporary debates by revisiting the life and struggles of its titular character.

Douglass is presented as a story of redemption. At its founding the United States was burdened by the original sin of slavery, which needed to be expunged before it undermined the motivating principles of the Declaration and Constitution. Some men—such as the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and black nationalist Martin Delany—believe the damage has been done. The American dream is beyond salvation, as the sin of slavery had poisoned the tree of liberty down to its very roots.