Fatherland | Thursday, January 29-Sunday, February 8, various times | Mettlesome Theater, Durham
Five years after January 6, 2021, Fatherland arrives in Durham squarely in the midst of a political world divided, with no interest in shying away from the conversation.
This is not a courtroom drama play about “that day” as a headline or an artifact of history. Instead, the Bulldog Ensemble Theater production focuses on the aftermath of the event—what happened when the barricades came down and the people who stormed the Capitol returned home to their families.
Opening Thursday, January 29, Fatherland is drawn from the true story of a son who reported his father to the FBI for his role in the Capitol insurrection and contains real court transcripts and interviews. Written by Stephen Sachs, the play moves between courtroom testimony and “memory theater,” with looks back on scenes from the family’s life, showing both the legal case and what led up to it.
“It’s not a courtroom drama,” said Director Marshall Botvinick. “That’s just the frame. What’s really happening is a relationship collapsing in real time.”
At the center is the father-son relationship, with North Carolina-based actors Brook North and Sam Olt playing father and son, respectively. North’s performance resists caricature. His character is not presented as a monster or a punch line but as a man dangerously convinced that he is acting in defense of his country.
“He believes he’s doing the right thing,” North said. “He believes he’s protecting his family, his kids, the future. That belief is sincere. That’s what makes it terrifying.”
The son comes to see the consequences first. Reporting his father becomes an act of both moral clarity and profound loss.
Olt described the role as one of forced adulthood. “He realizes his dad isn’t just flawed but that he’s dangerous,” he said. “And once you see that, there’s no going back.”
What Fatherland intentionally avoids is easy outrage. There are no triumphant speeches, no cathartic villains. Instead, the play is saturated with fear: fear for the country, fear for family, fear of what happens when belief detaches from reality. The tension isn’t necessarily left versus right, but loyalty versus responsibility.
Botvinick notes that political theater often aims to activate anger. Fatherland doesn’t.
“If it works, people won’t leap up at the end. They’ll just sit there,” Botvinick said.
That lingering effect is reinforced by the production’s staging. The play begins with news audio from January 6, dropping the audience into the noise and confusion of the day as they enter the theater and find their seats.
Crucially, Fatherland refuses rote redemption arcs.
“This isn’t about changing minds,” North said. “It’s about seeing people clearly even when that’s uncomfortable.”
In the end, Fatherland is less interested in January 6 as a historical event than it is in the questions of what we carry forward, what we lose, and whether family can survive when reality itself becomes contested.
Fatherland opens Thursday, January 29, at the Mettlesome Theater in Durham for a limited run.
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