Review: Main Street Players’ ‘The Revolutionists’ Reigns Supreme

Zoë Darragh Garnett as Olympe de Gouges, Elizabeth Chavez as Marie Antoinette, and Dayana Morales as Charlotte Corday in Main Street Players’ production of “The Revolutionists” at the Main Street Playhouse, Miami Lakes, through Sunday, Aug. 3. (Photo by Sefanja Richard Galon, courtesy of Main Street Players)

Think “Hamilton” without the music and sans a male-dominated cast, and you’ve got Lauren Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists,” a play that imagines the gathering of four historical women. Three are actual figures from the Reign of Terror in 1793, and one is a composite based on revolutionaries in history. A Black woman fighting for freedom from French-controlled Saint Dominque (now Haiti), Gunderson had to compile the character from multiple narratives, as most of the real stories have been erased.

The small, but mighty Main Street Players in Miami Lakes embrace Gunderson’s satire. Even her character descriptions in the script give a hint of how the roles should be played. We first meet Olympe de Gouges (the wonderfully earnest and so convincing Zoë Darragh Garnett), who Gunderson describes as a “badass activist playwright.” An activist for women’s rights, best known for her Declaration for the Rights of Women.

Enter Marianne Angelle (the versatile Cheryl Ross), a fictional character who Gunderson calls a “badass Black woman in Paris.” Wearing a sash emblazoned with the words “Revolution for All,” she symbolizes the Haitian rebels and revolutionaries of the time.

Cheryl Ross as Marianne Angelle and Zoë Darragh Garnett as playwright Olympe de Gouges in “The Revolutionists” at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. (Photos by Sefanja Richard Galon, courtesy of Main Street Players)

Although they are all strong women, Charlotte Corday (a feisty Dayana Morales riffing a killer French accent), the infamous assassin of revolutionary Jean Paul Marat, comes off as the most determined. Gunderson describes her as a “badass country girl, serious, hardened by righteousness and never been kissed.” A knife tucked in her boot, she’s ready to commit the deed that must be done, which will lead to her death by guillotine.

The most recognizable to audiences is Marie Antoinette (Elizabeth Chavez playing her to the hilt as the original “Influencer”), who shows up for de Gouges to rewrite her history, get her “better press.” Gunderson’s description? “Less badass but fascinating former queen of France .  . .  unintentionally rude.”

A guillotine stage right – painted on wood hastily to replicate the colors of the French flag is where the action begins. There is no one in the rack for beheading but we hear the blade come crashing down.

de Gouges enters, breaking the fourth wall, and speaking to her audience. “Well, that’s not a way to start a comedy. With an execution?” We learn she’s suffering from writer’s block – afraid to write what she desires about what’s happening around her for fear of consequences. “What if I write a play that is the voice of this revolution, but not the hyperbolic, angry-yelling kind.”

Besides the stage right area for the guillotine, the main action takes place in set designer Jacob Brown’s comfortable representation of de Gouges’ living quarters – the writing desk being an important playing area

The walls are decorated with clotheslines and clips from which hang pages and pages of different writings.

What the company does within the confines of the small theater to bring this play to life is commendable. Part of the difficulty of pulling off Gunderson’s vision is how to seamlessly mix the historical facts with a 21st-century modern language and humor. Marie Antoinette’s struggles as a queen in this version: “I couldn’t even start a youth fitness program at the palace, and don’t get me started on my rebranding ideas.”

The action moves quickly under Danny Nieves skilled direction and his understanding of the different levels in which this dramedy should ebb and flow is the underscore that brings everything together.

Elizabeth Chavez’s Marie Antoinette, right, has plenty to say as Zoë Darragh Garnett and Dayana Morales look on. (Photo by Sefanja Richard Galon, courtesy of Main Street Players)

Angelina Esposito’s costumes are wonderfully period and historically accurate, from the fitted bodice and wide skirt for de Gouges to the elaborate detail of Marie Antoinette’s lace, ruffles and, of course, signature tall wig, here decorated with bows.

The lighting design by Ricky J Martinez bathes the characters in cool light, almost sepia tone, giving the illusion of an antique photo. Caroline Ruiz’s sound design is at its best during scenes where riotous crowds have gathered to witness the public executions. The mob’s chants and cheers envelop the theater, giving the illusion that we’re in the thick of things.

During one scene, some of the women are sent into the audience to deliver pamphlets that carry quotes from strong activist women through history — Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Angela Davis, well-known names — and those that aren’t particularly household names – Rosa Luxemburg, a Polish-German Marxist revolutionary executed in 1919, and Leila Khaled, a Palestinian liberation fighter, as examples.

It’s one of the moments of impact – there are many – yet there is plenty of comedy to balance the seriousness of the times.

This is a wonderfully balanced production that dives into Gunderson’s way with words – and she gives her characters a lot of them.

“The Revolutionists” is a multi-layered play and Main Street Players delivers on every level.

WHAT: “The Revolutionists”

WHERE: Main Street Players, Main Street Playhouse, 6812 Main St., Miami Lakes

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sunday, Aug. 3

COST:  $30,  $25 for students and seniors with ID

INFORMATION: 305-558-3737 or mainstreetplayers.com.

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