What does it mean to be a revolutionist? How does one find their role in an inescapable and essential revolution? These are among the questions asked in Lauren Gunderson’s feminist take on France’s Reign of Terror, The Revolutionists opening Friday, June 12 at Long Beach’s International City Theatre (ICT). Directed by Jamie Torcellini, the three-week run extends through Sunday, June 28, at ICT’s home in the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center. (For details see below.)
Gunderson describes her 2016 play as “a comedy, a quartet, a revolutionary dream fugue and a true story.” The action follows for badass women (her term) fighting to find their place in the horror of the French Revolution. Playwright Olympe de Gouges (Amie Farrell), assassin Charlotte Corday (Sarah Pierce), former queen and fan of ribbons Marie Antoinette (Lyndsi LaRose) and Haitian rebel and spy Marianne Angelle (Nondumiso Tembe) navigate art, feminism, violence, survival and their legacy in 1793 Paris. All are actual historical figures except Angelle, an invented character representing the many Haitian people who fought for freedom from France.
How (and if) systemically disenfranchised women can make a significant difference—in bringing equal rights to all, especially women–in the face of widespread oppression and violence is a question that comes up repeatedly in The Revolutionists.
Following are excerpts from my interview with Jamie Torcellini about bringing The Revolutionists to the stage.
How did this assignment come about?
I was originally set to direct Allegra by Peter Quilter (author of End of the Rainbow). That show went to London’s West End and they pulled the rights.
Then I was going to direct Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B, Kate Hamill’s feminist take on the famous detective. But I thought a women should direct it, so my friend Amie Farrell helmed it.
With this show I felt I couldn’t drop out twice. And I really want to be part of it. Yes, it’s a strongly feminist piece, but I’d add that the creatives are all women, and being a gay man, I easily fit into the sisterhood.
I have a history with ICT–He previously directed Deathtrap (2023), The Legend of Georgia McBride (2022), The Last Five Years (2021) The Andrews Brothers (2020) and The 39 Steps (2018) –and I enjoy the plays.
With musicals everyone knows what to expect, with a play you can shake it up and think outside the box.
Why do you want to do this play? What’s the appeal?
It’s relevant and it’s about something. It’s really, really funny and the language is purposefully anachronistic. She’s even has the women say, ‘you go, girl,’ and ‘yes, we can.’
The action takes place during the French Revolution, but it could have been written today. Because of the current times, it asks what do we do? Do we keep quiet and stay silent, survive in our bedrooms in the dark under the covers or do we create art and fight back? That’s want Olympe is trying to do.
The challenges facing these women in 1793 aren’t a lot different from those facing women today. And this play examines what our responsibility is when rights are being stripped away.
How do these women fight back?
We see the Revolution through four different lenses. Marianne pursues social change seeking De Gouges to write pamphlets or a play highlighting the struggle of her island brethren against the French. The little assassin, Charlotte, seeks immortality by murdering the journalist Jean-Paul Marat. She feels the only way to fight back is with a knife. Marie longs to redeem her damaged reputation by “rebranding.” Olympe uses her voice to advance the Revolution, tapping into her power. (The actual playwright is known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.)
And Lauren gives these women powerful and moving moments where they face their fates with varying degree of defiance.
What’s your strategy for directing?
I approach this show like everything I’ve directed. I’m always well prepared and I come in with version A, B and C in my book. Then I throw it out and see where we go organically. And often I get what I call that “book moment” that I envisioned. I like to work this way all the time Usually I have four or five weeks. With this one I have 10 days.
Collaboration is scary for some directors, but I think the most important thing is to listen. You never know where the best ideas are going to come from; and actors have great instincts. If there’s something I feel strongly about, a pose a picture a reading or anything else, we fix it together.
Any contact with the playwright?
No, but I follow her, and she’s so funny. She was the most produced female playwright of the 2017-19 seasons.
I think she likely sees a lot of herself in de Gouges, an artist worried that making art is the right reaction to a time when things in the world are so frightening and discouraging. It’s a question many artists are asking themselves.
How do you balance the comedy with the horrific events looming in the play?
Gunderson does it with the words. She mixes comedy with serious themes like activism and beheadings. Gunderson knows that humor is one of the best weapons we have to fight oppression and fascism. She sneaks in the truths, keeps the audience engaged and enjoys making us laugh. At one point, Marianne says “It’s the Reign of Terror. Not the Reign of Agree to Disagree.” Responding to her most famous line, Marie Antoinette says, “I thought I was ordering lunch.”
A lot of times, after a heavy moment, the next thing is funny right off the bat. She’s really good at that.
There are lots of theatre jokes and references. The impatient assassin declares that she has no time for full-length literary works. She wants the playwright to give her a single, murder-worthy line and she wants it now.
What kind of research did you do?
I gave the cast a packet with two pages each with lots of historical facts about the women they’re playing. They got them at the same time they got the scripts and some dove in even deeper. There’s always more to find out about these women. But it’s important not to get stuck in it. The play is still a comedy and current with today’s vernacular.
We did find out that Marie Antoinette had a tutor who taught her to act like a queen and walk as if she was gliding. We may or may not add that for comic effect.
The guillotine is omnipresent in this play. How are you handling it?
We’re expressing it as a sound effect, a shadow. And there’s definitely going to be a scaffold. Our set designer Mio Okada–Nuñez has a lovely feel for an environment with no hard walls that’s more ethereal and opens up the action. There’s not a literal interpretation for the various scenes that are actually rooted in history.
The set makes for quick scene changes from Olympe’s study to a prison cell, the revolutionary tribunal and ultimately, the scaffold.
Lauren Gunderson even wrote an anthem for the women to add emotional depth.
Yes, it’s a contractual part of the play. It’s powerful and it ties the women together. Some of the lyrics read: Who are we without a story, / Washed away like sea in the sand. /Yet we survive the roughness of glory/By passing the beat/The beat of the heart/From hand to hand.
We’re using it with a driving beat behind it.
ICT’s Beverly O’Neill Theater is at 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach. Performances, through June 28 are at 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $56 and $59 on Sunday matinees. (7:30 p.m. previews Wednesday June 10 and Thursday, June 11 are $44). For more information and to purchase tickets, call (562) (562) 436-4610 or visit InternationalCityTheatre.org.
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