Campbell’s ‘Self Evidence’ Opening
Soon at Waterfront Theater
By Martha Slater

"Self Evidence" a play by former Randolph resident Maura Campbell, will open soon at the Waterfront Theater in Burlington. Campbell, who was the winner of the 2005 Vermont Playwright Award for this play, is directing the play, which is being produced by the Equinox Theatre, a Burlington-based theater company.

Performances of the play are February 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17 at 7:30 p.m., and Feb. 11 and 18 at 2 p.m. Randolph resident Jeff Tolbert plays one of the seven roles, a villainous character named Tom Butterfield.

James McGinnis, an accomplished composer and fiddler/base player, etc., has composed music which he will perform during the play. Music, Campbell says, "is organic to the play" and frames each scene and, at times, has a dialogue with Rebecca.

"I first stumbled on the story of Mrs. Rebecca Peake in the mid-1990s during a casual perusal of The History of Chelsea," Campbell recalled. "In 1832, she was convicted of murdering her 32 year-old stepson, Ephraim, and was sentenced to hang. However, on the night before her execution she managed to take an overdose of opium and the crowd was ‘spared the sight of seeing a woman hanged.’"

Although Chelsea Courthouse burned down a few years later, someone saw to it that her trial was published. Campbell found a copy at the Vermont Historical Library and began the research that would take her many years and lead her to write four plays about this woman. The first, "The Trial of Mrs. Rebecca Peake," is a courtroom drama that details the witch hunt and conspiracy around her arrest and conviction.

"However, Mrs. Peake did not testify at her own trial and I was faithful to that in the play," Campbell explained. "I always felt, though, that she needed to tell her story and almost 10 years later (and closer to 200 years later for Rebecca) I believe I have let her speak as well as I can."

The play begins in South Randolph in 1850. Rebecca, now dead, haunts the house that was formerly hers and is now occupied by Dr. William Pember. Into this house comes the young doctor’s bride, Fiona, daughter of William’s medical professor, who believes her mother died when she was born. Her husband discovers when he is summoned back to Boston by Fiona’s family solicitor, that her mother is very much alive, but has been in a private asylum since Fiona’s infant brother accidentally drowned.

Working in the house is 13 year-old Helen O’Grady, an orphaned servant who has escaped the potato famine in Ireland. Helen’s brother-in-law Tom is revealed to be a brute and clearly has his eye on this very young girl.

"Scrappy little Helen, sheltered innocent Fiona, and the accused and abandoned Rebecca, ‘Self Evidence’ is about the sudden explosion that occurs when their lives entwine, and how dependent their fates become on each other," Campbell says.

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