Governor Thomas Hutchinson enters Broadside as a Massachusetts-born Loyalist who genuinely believes he’s preventing catastrophe. He’s not chasing cruelty, he’s chasing containment: keep Boston from tipping from argument into riot, from satire into blood. He thinks of himself as the adult in the room, the one responsible for consequences nobody else wants to name.
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| Edes & Gill refuse to publish Governor Hutchinson's broadside |
His primary instrument isn’t a sword; it’s official paper. A proclamation broadside, read aloud and posted publicly, is how he tries to make reality hold still: disperse, obey, return to order. Play him as someone who treats the document with ceremony, measured voice and controlled posture because he believes law is the only thing separating “society” from “mob.”
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| The Governor finds a printer and admires his proclamation broadside |
Then the city answers back. His proclamations get mocked, sung over, and turned into fuel for the Patriot print machine; counter-broadsides, tavern choruses, laughter where he expects obedience. That’s where “us and them” is born for him: not as an idea, but as a feeling he looks up and realizes the crowd no longer sees a governor; they see an enemy.
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| The Three Drunken Maidens vandalize the Governor's broadside after their performance. |
His arc tightens from calm authority to brittle enforcement. The tragedy is that his fear of chaos makes him reach for harsher control, which only proves the Patriots’ point and deepens the split. For an audition: play the public face as composed, even polite, then let one private crack show the man underneath: wounded, cornered, and terrified of what happens if his words stop working.
