A Feminist Comedy “The Revolutionists” Comes to Bradley
April 13, 2022
ɫ Theatre continues its spring season with “The Revolutionists,” Lauren Gunderson’s surreal comedy set in 1793 Paris during the Reign of Terror. This fever dream of a play is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, as well as how we change the world.
The play creates a counterfactual quartet of formidable women: Olympe de Gouges, a playwright and author of the provocative “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen”; Charlotte Corday, an infamous young assassin; Marie Antoinette, a deposed queen; and Marianne Angelle, a free black woman and operative in the Haitian Revolution. Thrown together in a feverish conclave, these brilliant women hang out, find solidarity and create their own destinies.
Bradley’s cast includes:
- Sarah Dove, a senior playing Olympe
- Mery Drilling-Coren, a sophomore playing Charlotte
- Samantha Macauley, a first-year student playing Marie
- Ieshah Edwards, guest artist, actress and singer playing Marianne
- Emma O’Mahoney, a senior and the director
- Chad Lowell, an associate professor and the scene and lighting designer
- Lauren Lowell, guest costume designer
- Thomas Dixon, guest sound designer
The Bradley Theatre repertoire has increasingly featured women’s issues and the work of America’s female playwrights, notes Bradley Theatre Arts chair Scott Kanoff. He says, “[This play] is really like no other recent play that I know of.”
Performances of “The Revolutionists” at Bradey’s Hartmann Center are at 7:30 p.m. on April 20, 21, 22 and 23, and 2 p.m. on April 24. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here or calling the box office at 309.677.2650.