Three letters, two consonants and a vowel, entitle a new, first-rate work by Aaron Posner (of Stupid Fucking Bird fame). They also abbreviate the name of a historical figure, John Quincy Adams, who inhabited many roles during his long, illustrious career. He was a poet, essayist, lawyer, professor, diplomat, senator, congressman, and, most notably, the sixth commander-in-chief (and second President Adams) of a still-fledgling United States of America.

If asked, I suspect most Americans would know little about the man’s legacy. Compared to his towering predecessors – you know, those Founding Fathers – John Quincy Adams remains a cipher or, worse still, a big fat zero in our popular imagination. Though his one-term presidency is considered a failure, he was also a successful ambassador to the Netherlands and Russia, an integral figure in the acquisition of Florida, and is still the only president to leave the White House for another career in the House of Representatives (a distinguished one, at that). Adams was lampooned for promoting the construction of astronomical observatories across the country while president in the mid-1820s.

JQA, a world premiere now showing at Arena Stage, arrives as a much-needed corrective, offering Adams the Younger a Hamilton-like treatment. Posner, who wrote and directed this kaleidoscopic and edifying production, doesn’t employ song-and-dance numbers to illuminate a little-known American giant. He instead spreads the wealth among four excellent actors. John Quincy Adams is, in chronological order, played by young persons of color (Jacqueline Correa and Joshua David Robinson) and older white folks (Eric Hissom and Phyllis Kay).

Posner casts this superb quartet in multiple, overlapping roles, and places them in a series of têtes-à-têtes that unite the Spirit of ‘76 with the onset of the Civil War. Out of these imagined dialogues, JQA emerges as a protean character, one who grapples with big names – George Washington, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Fredrick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln. Maybe you’ve heard of those guys? His toughest exchanges, though, aren’t political in nature. They’re personal: His parents and wife come down on him the hardest.

Several narrative threads are woven into a resplendent quilt, a dense tapestry. Early into JQA, our protagonist’s father tells him that government ultimately boils down to self-management, a system of ethics etched in marble. Those ethics, mind you, once tolerated slavery. Later on, he’s confronted with a different perspective. Fredrick Douglass tells him to break free, to “do right.”

Here’s where Posner finds his underlying motif, a mantra of sorts. “Do right” is, at once, an admonition and a call to action. The man at the center of JQA never quite lives up to this promise. He misfired as a president, and also as a family man. But he was an idealist, one who bridged the two great milestones of the Republic’s early history. These four actors celebrate his mixed legacy with generosity and aplomb. John Quincy Adams steps into the spotlight, a historical footnote no longer. It’s late, but that’s better than never.

JQA runs at Arena Stage through April 14. Tickets $67-$115. Runtime approximately one hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.