Rick Conte’s show is about Benjamin Franklin’s trip to Britain in 1757 to protest against the Penn brothers’ exemption from paying tax on their lands in Pennsylvania, the state named after their father. While he was here, he was persuaded to visit Edinburgh, right in the middle of the Scottish Enlightenment, and fell in love with the city.
But it is also about how a young Rick Conte, who had acquired a taste for performing when he played a snowflake at the age of six, got on a plane to London in 1989 after graduating from University of Georgia, became a drummer in an indie band and was also told he should visit Edinburgh by a Scottish barmaid, who said it was pretty. He arrived during the Edinburgh Festival, and, even though he soon found out the city isn’t always quite as filled with art and performance for the rest of the year, he’s still here.
Like the adaptation of J R R Tolkien’s Leaf By Niggle by Richard Medrington, Conte’s fellow performer in Puppet State Theatre’s long-running hit The Man Who Planted Trees, the writer makes links between his own life and that of his subject, but it is remarkable just how well the two stories fit together without seeming contrived.
This detailed and very well researched story, packed with fascinating details about Franklin's remarkable life, is delivered in Conte’s laid-back, relaxed style, drawing you into his tale and switching seamlessly between eras. While there are many points at which the stories of the two visiting Americans touch, the earlier may have said he would like to live the rest of his days in Edinburgh but he returned to co-author the Declaration of Independence—amongst other things—while the later remained to build a life here. The two halves are brought together beautifully by the birth of Benjamin Conte in 1993.
If you want to spend more time in his company, this show alternates with his walking for a limited audience, which I’m sure is just as interesting.