The Contrast: Manners, Morals, and Authority in the Early American Republic

“The Contrast“, which premiered at New York City's John Street Theater in 1787, was the first American play performed in public by a professional theater company. The play, written by New England-born, Harvard-educated, Royall Tyler was timely, funny, and extremely popular. When the play appeared in print in 1790, George Washington himself appeared at the head of its list of hundreds of subscribers.
Reprinted here with annotated footnotes by historian Cynthia A. Kierner, Tyler’s play explore...