Read by Rachel Beanland, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Andi Arndt, Michael Crouch, and Ruffin Prentiss III.
Summary:
Richmond, Virginia 1811. It's the height of the winter social season, the General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia's gentleman plantation owners, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city's only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that's done looking for enlightenment at the front of a church. On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. Among them, in the third-floor boxes, is Sally Henry Campbell, who is still reeling after the death of her husband. For Cecily Patterson, in the colored gallery, the play is nothing but a four-hour reprieve from a life of enslavement that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater's managers, he'll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of being able to bring his wife to the theater one day, but he'll have to buy her freedom first. When the theater suddenly goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but countless others. In the days following the fire, the lives of these four people will intertwine in ways that could never be expected as the news of the fire begins to spread across the United States. Based on the true story of Richmond's theater fire, The House Is on Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious--and fleeting--chances at redemption.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.