The Revolutionists

Description

In this fresh and fast-paced comedy by award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson, a quartet of beautiful, badass women raise hell in Paris during the French Revolution. The Revolutionists are characters based in history that include playwright Olympe De Gouge, assassin Charlotte Corday, Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle, and the one-and-only Marie “Let Them Eat Cake” Antoinette who conspire to avoid losing their heads -- literally -- during the insanity of the Reign of Terror. This bold and blisteringly funny play is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world. “This play is something special”, says Director Kim Krueger. “The history is true, turbulent yet accessible, and the historically based characters are modern, smart, and sassy. Similar to “Hamilton”, the characters are fleshed out into real, fascinating, and hilarious people. While you are rooting for all of the characters to survive the Reign of Terror, these are also ladies you’d want to go to have a drink with.” The Revolutionists was inspired when Gunderson was visiting the Pantheon in Paris and heard a seldom-told story about a feminist playwright during the French Revolution. As she began exploring that period, Gunderson found “striking similarities to our time in America: ridiculous war, drowning national debt, vast divide between rich and poor, institutional racism, and the quest for women’s equality.” Gunderson adds, “But the play really turned into a grander story about stories - why we need to make art, what art does in times of crisis, how stories connect eras and philosophies across time.”