The moment is nothing short of exquisite. A thickly decorated stateroom with deep green walls flecked by gold stars, a fireplace humming with orange coals, ornate sconces lighting the room, a desk used by Thomas Jefferson. And there stands Abraham Lincoln, his flat-footed, striding physical manner filling the stage. “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,” he begins in a backwoods twang. The speech, perhaps one of the best known in American history, lasts for about two minutes, but it’s a wizardly two minutes.

Wizardly, that is, on the part of actor George Vafiadis, whose one-man show, “Mr. Lincoln’s Public Opinion Bath,” opened July 3 at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville. Delivering the Gettysburg Address with subtle passion — and coincidentally on the eve of Independence Day — Vafiadis stopped every breath in the opening-night audience. He craftily whirled together history and patriotism and graceful theatricality to create a most memorable moment.

Educational, personable and thoroughly dramatic, “Mr. Lincoln’s Public Opinion Bath” is a departure for the coastal summer-stock theater, which has made its name on spunky comedies, whodunits and the type of zany romantic adventures the season inspires. The production, however, is a landmark for the theater, which turns 25 this year and was founded — to the day of opening night — by Vafiadis.

Earlier this year, when Vafiadis, who now lives in Maryland, told Ken Stack, the current artistic director, about the Lincoln script he had conceived and written, Stack was game for premiering it in the theater where Vafiadis had made his own Maine debut as a director.

The theater is taking a chance in scheduling such a stalwart piece into its season. Let’s face it: Lincoln is an unlikely character to encounter on a summer night’s vacation away from the real world. Yet Vafiadis offers a depiction that is charming and inspiring.

The night begins with a forceful entrance from President Lincoln, who welcomes the audience and explains that he is holding public receptions for Americans so he can hear firsthand about their thoughts and concerns. He talks about his life — as a boy in Illinois, as a student who could “read, and write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.” Amusingly, he recounts how he nearly married the oversized Mary Owen, but was rejected and eventually paired with the quick-witted and well-educated Mary Todd, who shared his love of Shakespeare and supported his ambition to rise in government.

Rise he did, of course, from prairie lawyer to the 16th president of the United States, where he manuevered the country through the divisive political battles of the Civil War. As Lincoln progresses through the steps of his own life in this play’s monologue, he marches through both American history — conjuring up the figures of George McClellan, George Gordon Meade, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses Grant and William Sherman — and the truly American belief in a rags-to-riches promise. Lincoln, after all, had come that very road. His father couldn’t write his own name. Lincoln had a total of about 12 months’ education as a child. Yet his own son graduated from Harvard College.

Lincoln scholars might bring a more detailed criticism to Vafiadis’ work, but as a dramatic piece, “Mr. Lincoln’s Public Opinion Bath” is engaging theater — particularly for those who have an interest in this American icon or the era in which he lived.

Director Stack keeps the action rhythmic and the moods varied. Vafiadis, who is a leonine storyteller, takes it from there. Wearing the signature beard and black frock coat, he carries the audience through universal human foibles, patriotic fervor and the very unsettling death tolls of American soldiers. He humanizes Lincoln without diminishing him, and he doesn’t add any “glory, glory hallelujah” to an already oversentimentalized reputation.

Rather, Vafiadis makes us want to think about history, to understand greatness and duty, and to take a position on a legendary president who has been mythologized and deified and glorified. He also makes us laugh — sometimes about hackneyed images of nagging women and sometimes about the cleverness of a man who wasn’t afraid to be bold.

At the end of the two-act show (the first act is an hour, the second about 15 minutes), Lincoln leaves for an evening out with Mary at the theater. We don’t want him to go — in part because we know the outcome, but also because we have liked listening to his stories. That, by far, is the best component of this show. In a world that has grown distant from the human voice, here is a moment that is intimate and friendly and all about a little man who grew very tall, indeed.

“Mr. Lincoln’s Public Opinion Bath” will be performed Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m. through July 12, and 2 p.m. July 13 at the Acadia Repertory Theatre. For information, call 244-7260.