Here's cause for rejoicing twice over. Celebration One: After a few rocky years and a cancelled season, Freedom Theatre is back among us. This is a cultural victory for the city on many levels. The lights are on again at the magnificent John L. Allen, Jr. Theatre, perhaps the most effective and beautiful performance space in Philadelphia. (The Allen stage is housed in the former home of Edwin Forrest, which adds to the artistic patina.) More important, Freedom is the oldest and most visible African-American theater in Philadelphia, as well as an educational resource. It is unthinkable that such a vibrant institution should be lost to us—and now it's back in full force.

Celebration Two: You couldn't ask for a better new beginning than Emergence-See!, Daniel Beaty's simply stunning one-man show.

Did I say one man? Try 40 roles—men and women, boys and girls, of all backgrounds and identities—perfectly played (and sung!) with virtuosity and compassion by Beaty, who also wrote the powerhouse script.

In Emergence-See!, a ghost slave ship has mysteriously washed up in the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. The ship, loaded with old bones, quickly becomes both a tourist magnet and a political lightning rod.

Through Beaty's many characters, we go on our own voyage of cultural identity, during which we meet Rodney and Freddie, brothers whose lives are on hold since their father—a former Shakespearean scholar, now schizophrenic—has literally taken the ship by storm.

But Rodney (an earnest young poet) and Freddie (a funny gay kid with a diva's soul) are only the beginning. Beaty moves with Indy 500 speed from person to person and place to place. When prose isn't sufficient to tell the story, he launches into verse (some of Emergence-See!'s most powerful scenes take place during a poetry slam). When verse isn't enough, Beaty bursts into song, with a magisterial baritone of incredible range and power.

One element that sets Emergence-See! apart from other one-actor/multiple-character shows is the intricacy of its plotting. Beaty weaves the kind of complex narrative—intricate nesting boxes of bits and pieces that ultimately unite—that would work in a fine novel.

Even more impressive is the breadth of Beaty's vision. Emergence-See! is full of heartbreak and rage—but also tremendous humor, and ultimately there's even room for optimism. Toward the end of the show, a historian is interviewed on TV by a hapless newsreader. "Slavery is not history—it's a reality," declares the historian. But is there room for hope, the stricken newsreader wonders? "There's always hope," smiles the historian. It is that vast unknown space—between reality and hope—that Beaty navigates with unerring grace.

This is must-see theater, and it plays through Feb. 19 only. Order tickets now.

EMERGENCE-SEE!Through Feb. 19, Freedom Repertory Theatre, John E. Allen, Jr. Theatre, 1346 N. Broad St., 866-314-3733, www.freedomtheatre.org