When George O. Seilhamer, a historian of the early American theater, described Orlando: or Parental Persecution as “a very immature work,” he was being generous. Orlando is arguably the worst play in English ever printed, let alone performed. Written by a young man who had been praised for his work as an actor in Boston, Orlando debuted at the Federal Street Theatre on March 10, 1797. With an impossible plot, poorly motivated characters, and alarmingly mixed metaphors, White’s “tragedy”is unintentionally comic.

Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society