Nobody accidentally reaches Matinicus. Twenty miles offshore is this isolated island in Penobscot Bay’s outer reaches. Additionally, the state ferry only operates roughly once every week. However, that didn’t stop a professional theatrical group from performing there this summer. Many of the islanders are familiar with the history that the play is based on. It’s actually a narrative about one of them.
The hardcore fishing community on Matinicus is well-known. Lobster wars. really tough individuals. While there are certain rules, there aren’t many laws.
“You know, if there’s something that needs to be done and you’re able to do it, or if you’re able to help, that’s what you do,” said Clayton Philbrook. “You step up and do it.”
The celebration of his family’s bicentennial is just around the corner.
“I’m always here [on Matinicus].” Since 1826, my family has been here,” Philbrook remarked.
There are just about fifteen robust year-rounders like Philbrook. Many locals, particularly those with small children, have relocated to the mainland.
However, the population peaks at around 100 in the summer. And nearly all of them have come to witness the Penobscot Theatre Company’s simplified production of Matinicus: A Lighthouse Play at the Congregational Church of Matinicus. Jenny Connell Davis, a resident of Maine, wrote this very recent work during COVID, and it was presented this spring in the historic Bangor Opera House.
Abigail Burgess, the story’s protagonist, resided in the 19th century on little, windswept Matinicus Rock, five miles south of Matinicus Isle. She is still admired by most islanders.
Ruby commented, “I like her because she’s very brave,” at the age of five.
The young girl is as familiar with this actual narrative as generations of islanders before her: How Abbie’s father in the 1850s worked as the lighthouse keeper on “The Rock.” And how he has to go to the mainland to refill that first winter when the supply boat doesn’t arrive, leaving teenage Abbie in charge.
“She then approached the lightbulb to confirm if it was operational. “And the storm arrived,” Ruby remarked.
Their home is destroyed by the massive nor’easter. However, for weeks until her father comes back, Abbie is able to keep her ailing mother, younger sisters, and their chickens safe and the lights going.
Books, songs, and even a one-woman performance have all popularized versions of this tale.
Wearing woolen tights and long skirts, Abbie takes center stage at the front of the church, beside the stepladder that symbolizes the lighthouse.
“Why us, stuck on a rock for months on end while everybody else lives their lives?” she asks, initially complaining about being the daughter of the lighthouse keeper.
Abbie quickly discovers, however, that she likes assisting her father in keeping the lights blazing and the lamps shined. And “steer clear!” for ships.
Abbie looks to the audience as he leaves and the storm arrives, pleading with the angry sea for forgiveness.
We can be easily devoured because we are so little. However, there are those who are in need of our light. Katie Peabody, who is Abigail Burgess, begs, “Please, go easy for their sake.”
Because Abbie took charge and performed what people thought was a man’s job during a crisis, Peabody stated that she thinks the story is about women’s empowerment. She subsequently made the decision to continue, becoming one of the first female lighthouse keepers in Maine.
“And I just think that’s really inspirational for many reasons,” Peabody stated. “But one of them is that I think sometimes it’s hard for us to kind of be true to who we are, in spite of the world telling us that maybe that’s not who we should be.”
Growing up here, in such a male-dominated fishing culture, many women on the island told me that they looked up to Abbie.
On stage, Peabody claimed to feel as though she was sharing the narrative rather than only recounting it.
This production has, in Douglas Cornman’s opinion, brought islanders together to enjoy themselves and take a much-needed holiday.
“It is really how they gain the energy to sustain the hard work that it takes to live in these very rural and isolated communities,” Cornman stated.
Cornman is the director of the island outreach vessel Sunbeam and works for the nonprofit Maine Seacoast Mission, which has been around for 120 years. The 74-foot ship helped bring this performance to three outer islands: Great Cranberry, Isle Au Haut, and finally, Matinicus. It also provides spiritual assistance, health and educational services, and various activities.
According to Cornman, the Mission serves fifteen unbridged coastal islands with year-round residents, with Matinicus being the most isolated.
“It is a community that is struggling both with its infrastructure and with its declining and aging population,” Cornman stated. However, it will not be defeated easily, and the Mission will continue to exist as long as this community is prepared to endure.
Resilience is a theme that is reflected on stage. Young Abbie Burgess’s perceptions of the Rock, herself, and her mission have evolved by the play’s conclusion.
“It’s home.” And when they eventually determine that girls need heroes, they will publish children’s books, folk songs, and stories about me in a century.”
Following the performance, Peabody was showered with hugs, compliments, and even a few tears from the audience.
Natalie Ames, an islander, was one among them and claimed that it felt personal to watch the performance in their church.
“We all are islanders, so we got the inside joke of it, the real essence of it, the remoteness, the struggle, how dangerous the sea really is,” Ames stated. “People out here completely understand that.”
Christina Young, her cousin, gave a nod of assent. Yes, since the sea is the most significant thing if you were born, raised, or married here. “The fishermen are the most important thing, followed by the boats,” Young stated. “So Abbie was, like, our thing.”
For the time being, this was the last performance of “Matinicus,” on Matinicus.
This autumn, Katie Peabody will make a comeback to Bangor’s Penobscot Theatre Company to begin a performance of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw.”
