Laura Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists,” performed in Maloney Hall’s Blackbox Theatre Dec. 4-8, explores the lives of women during the French Revolution and what their stories mean.
What revolution and legacy mean are at the core of the story as the characters navigate what that means for them during the ongoing revolution. The play invites the audience to think about how feminism intersects with the freedom and equality goals sought by revolutions but is discarded by the men in power for their own plans of the revolution. The plot focuses on four women to tell their stories of struggles: Olympe De Gouge, Charlotte Corday, Marie Antoinette and Marianne Angelle. Angelle stands out as noteworthy, as she, a Haitian freewoman advocating for the end of slavery in French territories, is not a real historic figure. She instead embodies the message of the freedom the revolutions strive for and constantly tries to empower and motivate the other characters with this sentiment.
“The Revolutionists” opens with De Gouge trying to write a play inspired by the ongoing Reign of Terror in Paris, France. She gets propositioned by Angelle, Corday and Antoinette to write for them to support their own narratives. Angelle wants pamphlets to spread the word of cause to end slavery, Corday wants a last line to say when she assassinates journalist and politician Jean-Paul Marat, and Antoinette wants to be recognized for who she really is. The women discuss the revolution and how stories are used and can be told through the art of theatre.
The play is initially comedic, especially with the character of Antoinette, who comes across as airheaded and frivolous, reflecting how she was commonly seen at the time and still today. The characters engage in banter that make light of their circumstances; while also commenting on how terrible a time it was for women at this point in history. The play takes a serious turn when Corday kills Marat and is sentenced to the guillotine for it. De Gouge loses faith in the revolution when she is rejected by the National Assembly for her desire for women’s equality.
Antoinette realizes her fate is fast approaching and gives comfort to Angelle who has just learned that her husband has died while fighting in the Haitian Revolution. Antoinette promises to deliver Angelle’s final letter to her husband and goes to the guillotine, defending herself as a women and human being before being executed.
De Gouge and Angelle fight as De Gouge is fearful of her safety and Angelle calls her a coward for failing to tell the real stories of the revolution like that of herself, Corday and Antoinette and just hiding in playwriting. They make up after Antoinette’s execution and ponder a world that will have equality and tell people’s stories as they happened.
De Gouge eventually is put on trial for her work, which has been deemed treasonous against the Republic. Despite her attempts at defense, De Gouge is sentenced to the guillotine like Corday and Antoinette before her. After some panic, De Gouge decides to face forward and makes her story her own by inspiring the watching crowd to create the freedom they truly want in the revolution.
There is a story-within-a-story element to the play, in part because it shows De Gouge writing an actual play of hers, “France Preserved, or The Tyrant Dethroned,” about Antoinette learning about how to work with the revolutionaries to improve France. The theme of stories and who tells them comes up at nearly every turn. Towards the end of the play, the characters acknowledge the audience as people who are seeing their stories and will pass them on.
The Theatre Department’s next performance will be “True West” held in Torp Theatre March 26-30.
