“The Revolutionists" at the Black Box Theatre -- March 3 through 12.
Thursday, March 3, through Saturday, March 12
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
Lauded by the Cincinnati Enquirer as "a sassy, hold-on-to-your-seats theatrical adventure" as well as "a play that is wonderfully wild and raucous," Lauren Gunderson's The Revolutionists enjoys a March 3 through 12 area debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre, the author's acclaimed comedy praised by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as "an astoundingly accomplished show" that's "ingeniously conceived and delivered."
The Revolutionists finds four beautiful, bad-ass women losing their heads during an irreverent, girl-powered delight set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. In Gunderson's stage work, playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen (and fan of ribbons) Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, and try to beat back the extremist insanity in 1793 Paris. And in doing so, this grand and dream-tweaked comedy explores violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world. A true story – or a total fiction ... or a play about a play ... or a raucous resurrection – that ends in a song and a scaffold, The Revolutionists led the Houston Chronicle to rave that its author "knows it’s tricky to present entertaining yet socially driven art, but she does so without losing the rhythm and forward momentum of her characters."
Directing The Revolutionists for the Black Box Theatre is area favorite Patti Flaherty, a performer from the venue's The 39 Steps: A Live Radio Play and I Never Saw Another Butterfly who previously directed the romantic comedy It Had to Be You for the theatre. Flaherty's play stars Black Box veteran Kayla Jo Pulliam Mendoza as Olympe De Gouge, Alice Jane as Charlotte Corday, Cynthia Lomas as Marianne Angelle and Black Box co-founder and artistic director Lora Adams as Marie Antoinette. And with LuAnne Sisk serving as backstage assistant, The Revolutionists' set construction and crew are by Michael Kopriva, Tom Vaccaro, Trinity Filut, and Julien Blaine, with the show's costumes by Adams and lighting design by fellow co-founder David Miller.
The Revolutionists runs at the Moline venue March 3 through 12, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $13-16, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
