A new one-act play explores a 1776 trial in Coram that helped set the stage for the Culper Spy Ring.

Long before George Washington’s Culper Spy Ring became one of the best-known espionage networks of the American Revolution, tensions were already boiling over on Long Island.

In May 1776, with British forces threatening the region and communities divided between Loyalists and Patriots, a local merchant named Thomas Fanning was brought before the Brookhaven Committee of Safety and accused of treason against the Crown.

That little-known chapter of Long Island history has been transformed into a play to be performed at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson during Culper Spy Day on Saturday Oct. 3 and is part of the area’s commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Titled Treason’s Trial, the production grew out of Port Jefferson Village’s 250 Planning Committee, which was looking for ways Theatre Three could contribute to the anniversary celebrations by drawing attention to the area’s own history.

“There’s so much local history,” said Douglas J. Quattrock, who wrote the play, with music and lyrics by Quattrock and Jeffrey Hoffman. Theatre Three’s Executive Artistic Director Jeffrey Sanzel provided script supervision, while Mark Sternberg, the Village’s Culper Spy historian, served as historical consultant. The production was made possible through funding from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation through the Greater Port Jefferson Historical Society.