André; a Tragedy in Five Acts is a play by William Dunlap, first produced at the Park Theatre in New York City on March 30, 1798, by the Old American Company, published in that same year together with a collection of historic documents relating to the case of the title character, Major John André, the British officer who was hanged as a spy on October 2, 1780, for his role in the treason of Benedict Arnold.
The play does not go into the historic details, but rather presents a fictionalized account of the American debate over whether to spare or hang him.
Despite the fictionalization, the play genuinely shows the anguish felt by many on the American side over the decision to hang the brilliant and charming young officer, and it is written in unusually supple verse for the 18th century.
Moreover, at opening night, the crowd rose to its feet in anger and indignation when Bland, a soldier in the play, hurled his cockade to the ground at the prospect of André being sentenced to death.
Dunlap later recycled much of André into his pageant-play The Glory of Columbia, Her Yeomanry, a piece resonating with the Populist tone in theatre at the time, and which continued to be regularly produced for fifty years.