Why To See “The Revolutionists” at Prospect Theater Project
By Summer Krafft
It is tricky to have a play full of surprises where the audience already knows how the story ends, and the best theater surprises even the most seasoned viewers. We all know Marie Antoinette is doomed for madame guillotine from the beginning. This is true for many in The Reign of Terror in 18th century France, where Lauren Gunderson’s witty, irreverent, evocative, and breathtaking The Revolutionists is set. You can see it March 21st-April 6th at Prospect Theater Project at 1214 K Street in Modesto.
Directed by Associate Artistic Director of Prospect Theater Project, Laura Dickinson-Turner, this show about three iconic women in history–and one representing an amalgamation of a historical movement and women whose stories went unwritten–is handled with such care, making them human, vibrant, and strikingly alive in every moment they’re onstage–hard to do when we know most of the characters were real people who have long since passed while feeling that the actors are performing an embodiment rather than an imitation. Her choice of music for the production lends some fun, whimsy, commentary, and gravity to an already poignant show. Every element of this production elevates the others. Other standouts include the period-specific costuming by Karen Lotko and atmospheric lighting design by Artistic Director Jack Souza.
The most pleasant surprise is the casting of the four actors–it is not always the case that all players shine equally. This speaks to Lauren Gurnderson’s writing a play for actors and Laura’s directing style. You’ll be shocked at how much you’ll laugh–and how hard–in a play about the French Revolution. Equally hilarious are all four performances, and it is clear how well this cast has bonded to create this stunning work.
Seska Marie Williams brings relatable conflict, yearning, and palpable fear to her Olympe de Gouge, the last surviving woman writer at one point in the revolution, who is writing the play as it unfolds onstage. Leiyah Russel’s Marianne Angelle, a representation of a Caribbean Revolutionist who advocates tirelessly for the cause despite the personal cost, is deeply grounded, romantic, and stern. Alice Zuzich plays Marie Corday, the assassin that is responsible for the death of Jean Paul Marat, arrives onstage like a firework–manic, hilarious, and surprisingly haunting as the play goes on. The character we least expect to enter–least obviously a Revolutionist–is Marie Antoinette, once Queen of France, bustling and teetering, somehow oblivious in the beginning, almost child-like in moments, and then genuinely heartbreaking as we hear the story of her life and her experience as a wife and mainly as a mother. She then brings this sense of motherhood to her other characters in moments of need and to her fate.
As an audience, we experience the “beheadings” in such an artistic and arresting way, watching these women, who have become sisters onstage before us, united by womanhood, civil unrest, and genuine terror, go from real people to ghosts, stories that will live through time. The play deals with life and death, fear and responsibility, love and loss, feminism through time, and what we owe a country that is actively betraying us–not to mention the girl power and a study on how women change the world. Whatever you come for, I guarantee you’ll stay for the dance parties.
Performances are March 21st, 22nd, 28th, 29th, & April 4th & 5th at 7:30 pm and March 30th & April 6th at 2:00. The March 30th performance will be followed by PTP’s Page-2-Stage Discussion next door in The Artist Lab, and the closing matinee on April 6th will be followed by a Talkback with the cast and director in the theater. For tickets, visit https://prospecttheaterproject.org/box-office/?eid=132987 or call the box office at (209)549-9341.
If you’re planning on seeing the show, swing by Lo-Fi Laboratories for their new bar bites and their specialty cocktail, The Red Ribbon, in honor of The Revolutionists: a mix of vodka, prosecco, lemon, raspberry, and simple syrup. You must be 21+ to enjoy it, but all are welcome at the show!
