Paris-1793-The Reign of Terror [or is it today?]. Four women: a playwright, an assassin, a political activist, and a former Queen walk into a bar --- no, wait...not into a bar, but on-stage at Theatre AUM in a staged reading of prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson's provocative 2017 comedy The Revolutionists.
Prior to its penultimate reading on Saturday night, Dr. Michael Burger contextualized essential information about the French Revolution that served to focus the audience's attention on the subjects of Gunderson's play: aspects of the Revolution's slogan "liberte-egalite-fraternite", the often neglected role of women in the cause, and the symbolism of the French "tricolore" flag, all of which bridge the centuries and continue to resonate today.
Director Val Winkelman chose the format of a staged reading to bring our attention to the script's themes and how we might assess our involvement in our own legacy, the significance of women's voices, justice, the social and political impacts of art, and the power of words. Words matter here, and Gunderson's dialogue contains so many anachronistic words and references [the women frequently refer to themselves as "badass women", for example] that we are compelled to pay attention to 21st Century matters.
Three of the characters are actual historic figures who ended up as victims of the guillotine: playwright Olympe de Gouges [Tiara Staples], Charlotte Corday [Kanchan Deopa] who assassinated Jean Paul Marat, former Queen Marie Antoinette [Courtney Cox]; the fourth, Marianne Angelle [Moriah Henry] is a fictional Haitian activist. -- And Ms. Winkelman has cast the roles with a keen sense of current sensitivities to diversity, equity, and inclusion; her actors represent a mix of cultures and ethnicities, and one blind actor reads from a Braille script.
Bringing these four women together is an inventive device that, no matter how improbable, gives voice to the subject matter intelligently and with a mix of humor. -- Olympe denies that she has writer's block, but seems incapable of getting her proposed play off the ground until she is goaded into writing radical pamphlets in support of Marianne's cause; Charlotte is so committed to sacrificing herself by killing Marat that nothing else seems to matter; and Marie wants desperately to be the protagonist of Olympe's play, partly to become a more sympathetic person than history has shown her.
On the plus side of this staged reading, we are treated to complex ideas and characters, and can delight in some cerebral philosophizing, especially how relevant the issues are today. -- Mike Winkelman's stunning projections are shown on a giant screen behind the actors, and Yahzane Palmer's subtle costumes replicate the "tricolore"; but, with hardly any physical movement [they're all seated until the last few moments of the play's two acts], audiences are denied the visual stimuli and physical energy, as well as much of the humor, contained in Gunderson's characterizations.
Will The Revolutionists eventually be given a fully staged production at Theatre AUM? Wait and see.
