Melvin Matos, a history-minded high-schooler, moved to New Haven from Boston this past year. Helping a community theater group stage a reading of a play about a little-known chapter in his new city’s history, he was disturbed by what he learned.
That’s what happened this Saturday in Fair Haven during a reading of The Excommunication Mrs. Eaton.
It’s a play I wrote about how the wife of Theophilus Eaton, who co-founded New Haven with Minister John Davenport in 1638, was driven from the church by Davenport.
Her offense? She didn’t believe in the baptizing of infants and walked out of Davenport’s services when he baptized children.
Melvin Matos couldn’t pay 100 percent attention to the story. As a 16-year-old intern with the Bregamos Theater Company that was co-producing my play, he was working the lights and other details of the production. (Another reading of the play takes place this coming Saturday, downtown.)
But Matos heard enough of the dialogue to be dismayed that in colonial New Haven the Puritans who’d fled for religious freedom were highly intolerant in those precarious early years of the settlement.
“It’s hard to believe people couldn’t follow what they believed,” he said after the show was over.
This was the third of four staged readings of my play. After previous performances I’d received notes from the actors and director, from living descendants of Anne Eaton and a few compliments from audience members. But I found Melvin’s take on my play to be straightforward, fresh, and very moving. I’m not quite sure why.
Another aspect of the play intrigued Melvin: the behavior of Anne Eaton’s husband, Theophilus (actors Steve Scarpa and Brooks Applebaum pictured in the two roles of Theophilus and Anne). He didn’t come to his wife’s defense. He didn’t attack her as Davenport did during the church trial that is the journey of the play. But he didn’t support her either. Not even her right to have her own point of view.
He took refuge in silence. Melvin found this disturbing. He liked the dialogue, but not when Theophilus gave up and let Anne become the target for John Davenport’s attacks.
“I was shocked her husband turned his cheek. [Shocked] that he wouldn’t take a stand for his wife,” Melvin said.
Melvin comes to a pride in American history from having been raised near downtown Boston, he said. He was born in Cambridge and spent his first 14 years there. For the last year he’s lived in New Haven, where he attends Wilbur Cross.
When you go downtown in Boston, he said, “you see statues everywhere. I’m proud of my roots in Boston.”
I’d been working on this play for five years, on and off. I’d completely forgotten, or rather by now taken it for granted, that theocracy had ruled in New Haven in the first formative decade, a pretty severe form to boot. The Bible was the only law. The word of the pastor the truth. Deviation unacceptable. The extremity of that had intrigued me too.
That’s what in a way drew me to Anne Eaton’s story, how she stood up to theocracy. I was drawn by the fact that it took exceptional courage for a woman to do so, even though she was to an extent protected from severity of punishment through being married to the struggling colony’s most powerful man, next to Davenport.
As he put away the equipment with the other interns, his half-brother Elvin and Justin Ramos, Melvin said he plans to study archeology when he finishes high school at Cross.
“It’s hard to believe we have all this stuff [freedom of religious expression] we take for granted,” he said.
Melvin reminded me of all that, and I was grateful for it.
The final performance of The Excommunication of Mrs. Eaton takes place Saturday ‚Nov. 21, at 1 p.m. Click here for details.The venue will be Center Church on the Green, the very spot where the trial Anne Eaton took place in 1647.
The play is also produced by The New Haven Theater Company.
Thanks to Allan Appel for this story about the The Excommunication of Mrs. Eaton, and especially about Melvin Matos' response to it. This report is rich on so many levels. First, it demonstrates the benefits of exposure to historic monuments, and curious young minds; Melvin said in Boston there are statutes everywhere, and to opportunities for young people to be involved in theatrical productions.
It is certainly helpful for us adults to be reminded that unless we are aware of some of our very oppressive history, we are bound to keep doing the same things, or worse. Sadly, in some instances we have simply changed the method of oppression and persecution. In the following paragraph there is much we can reflect on and find comparisons in today's society. It might not be about religion; although it sometimes still is. If we were to honestly evaluate much of the political coverage in last year's election we will find plenty to be concerned about in terms of how women are evaluated versus the men.
"Though she is a “weaker vessel,” as women’s minds were deemed at the time, Anne is very much her own woman, a daunting theological opponent. For that treason Davenport is fearful of debating her in public. Instead, he drives a wedge into Anne and Theophilus Eaton’s already stressed marriage, trawling for more easily prosecutable domestic sins, thus forcing both Anne and Theophilus to choose between their love and marriage and their faith and the fortunes of the struggling colony."
It is so very hopeful to read that 16 year old Melvin Matos was disturbed by the fact that Theophilus Eaton did not support his wife's right to have her own opinion. While overall we have made some advancement in this regard (at least in some of the political partnerships) there is still a long way to go. Women are still expected to support their husband's position whether they agree with it or not, but more specifically they are not expected to develop positions that are contrary to their husbands. Sadly, in many arenas women are still considered to be "the weaker vessel" and if they prove themselves NOT to be, they run the risk of being called ugly names. I am looking forward to seeing this play on Saturday Nov. 21.