Photo by Sefanja Richard Galon, courtesy of Main Street Players

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)

By AARON KRAUSE

A small, dark statue of a woman rests among the items in Jacob Brown’s realistic set design for Main Street Players’ (MSP) shining professional production of Lauren Gunderson’s funny and moving play, The Revolutionists. Yet it is easy to overlook the black, inconspicuous statue—or notice that parts of its body are missing.

Similarly, over the centuries, society has overlooked women’s stories in favor of male-dominated narratives. Indeed, there’s a sense that women’s history, like the statue in the set, is fractured; women are there, but not whole, not seen clearly. But women are unmissable in The Revolutionists. MSP’s believable production is a spirited celebration of female resilience and the tight bonds of sisterhood—even amid the specter of the scaffold.

The Revolutionists: A Timely Celebration of Sisterhood

MSP’s production ended recently after a little more than a two-week run in the company’s intimate black box theater space in Miami Lakes. MSP’s mounting marked the second time in less than a decade that South Florida theater artists have produced The Revolutionists.

In 2018, the Florida premiere of the piece played on the stage of Theatre Lab. That is the professional resident company at Florida Atlantic University.
Both productions seamlessly melded humor and pathos to form roughly two empowering hours of live theater. Certainly, The Revolutionists has grown more relevant since Theatre Lab’s 2018 production. This time, the U.S. is several months into Donald J. Trump’s second term as president (Theatre Lab’s production came two years into his first).

Undoubtedly, division, censorship, violence, hate crimes, and other forms of belittlement have increased since Trump—whom many consider incompetent, racist, fascist, and misogynistic—first took office.

By contrast, in The Revolutionists, Gunderson emphasizes and celebrates things many of us prize in society: the power of words, art, and stories (particularly live theater), feminism, equality, freedom, and legacy. However, Gunderson never preaches in the piece. Rather, she uses comedy to highlight the absurdity of injustices in a patriarchal society that dehumanizes people.

The Revolutionists, a play which feels especially urgent in 2025, exposes the hypocrisy of those dedicated to the French Revolution (1789–1799). It was a movement supposedly with common folks in mind.

Gunderson’s Sharp Wit and Meta-Theatrical Brilliance

Gunderson isn’t simply teaching history; she enlightens through humor and energy. This cleverly written comic confection, as invigorating and creative as Hamilton in its blend of history and modern sensibility, suggests Luigi Pirandello and his masterpiece Six Characters in Search of an Author. In both plays, the authors blur the lines between fiction and fact.

“I’m here for a writer,” blurts out Charlotte Corday (1768–1793). She assassinated French Revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat and was executed by guillotine.

Corday is one of several characters who appear in the mind—and pages—of playwright, activist, and feminist Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793). As she works on her play, Corday, former French queen Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), and free Black activist and spy Marianne Angelle (a fictional character) speak, prod, argue, and plead with de Gouges.

These characters want de Gouges to include their plight in her play (the play within the play that we’re watching). Through this setup, Gunderson playfully suggests how an artist’s mind might work as she creates. In essence, Gunderson’s The Revolutionists is about a playwright writing a play. At one point, de Gouges decides to call her play The Revolutionists. Meta-theatrically, de Gouges is working on the play that we, in 2025, are experiencing.

At one point she declares, “We hold these truths and-the-fact-that-women-are-people to be self-evident.”

How can you not cheer, “You go girl!” after hearing such an emboldening proclamation? Elle Woods from Legally Blonde would, no doubt, be proud.

Powerful Performances Bring the Revolutionists to Life

It is virtually impossible not to cheer on de Gouges. She’s willing to fight—literally to the death—for that which she believes. The threat of dying at the guillotine hangs over her, but she presses on. This indomitable character, like her fellow “sisters,” will not go down easily without leaving her mark.

It’s a mark that can cut and penetrate deep through the arrogance and inhumanity of the extremists, Gunderson suggests.
“She is risking everything for her art,” Angelle tells Corday. “So be nice to the playwright, because she holds fiction like you hold that blade and I bet her weapon is sharper.”

Gunderson is one of the most produced playwrights in America. She wields a mighty pen herself. Like the talented playwright Tom Stoppard, she explores expansive ideas in science and art. With a Stoppardesque touch, Gunderson writes with sharp, incisive, sarcastic wit. She educates without lecturing and builds empathy through her flawed, funny, and searching characters. Many of them are strong, driven, emotionally complex women.

Gunderson also uses humor to sharpen her social commentary and entertains through meta-theatricality—characters who point out that they are telling a story. Unquestionably, The Revolutionists is a love letter to live theater, creativity, and art in general.

Of course, Gunderson’s sharp writing can only resonate if a cohesive team of theater artists skillfully handles her material. Such a team existed in 2018 at Theatre Lab. And MSP assembled an equally skilled group to bring The Revolutionists’ world to vivid life.

Strong chemistry between four fine female thespians ultimately creates a sisterhood that proves strong even in the face of the scaffold. Under Danny Nieves’ solid direction, tension between these women ebbs and flows seamlessly, as often happens in real life. Gestures such as a supportive hand on the shoulder, hug, and hand-holding reinforce the closeness between these women.  Meanwhile, smart staging choices—such as placing characters nearly nose to nose—visually signal confrontation and hostility. The performers are Zoë Darragh Garnett as Olympe, Cheryl Ross as Marianne, Dayana Morales as Charlotte, and Elizabeth Chavez as Marie.

Gunderson has stressed: “The play is mostly a comedy. The play is based on real women, real transcripts, and real executions. But remember it’s a comedy.”
These performers have obviously gotten the message and act accordingly.

When she enters, Morales’ Charlotte barges into the space like a runaway train or bulldozer, disregarding any obstacles in her path. With her brown eyes blazing with fire, she demands in a sharp voice that the playwright cater to her. As Morales portrays her, Charlotte moves quickly, with purpose, and her posture suggests aggression and self-confidence bordering on arrogance. To Morales’ credit, that hostility effortlessly melts into fear and vulnerability late in the action. That is when her date with the scaffold approaches. Also, clearly, Morales’ Charlotte offers a shoulder to lean on for the other women during tough times.

Like Morales, Garnett’s dark, wide, sharp eyes shine with inspiration and determination as the playwright, Olympe. Garnett presents a performance blessed with range and realism. We sense Olympe’s fear, yearning, and courage, but also her passion, playfulness, and over-the-top dramatics. Truly, we feel we’re watching a woman create in real time and enjoying it. She’s also defiant to the end—concentrating on her task even as the guillotine’s blade inches ever closer to her neck (we see nothing graphic in this production).

In less capable hands, Queen Marie Antoinette might easily devolve into a caricature. But while Chavez imbues the royal figure with convincing vanity, extravagance, flashiness, and even flightiness, the performer also makes her character endearingly human during touching moments. At these times, beneath her tall white wig and bright-colored period outfit, we sense, through her soft, supportive voice, a compassionate woman who blends in well with this sisterhood.

Another key part of that sisterhood is Marianne Angelle. Based on her backstory and circumstances, you might expect her to act desperate or to be impatient, for instance, with Queen Marie Antoinette’s antics. Indeed, Angelle fears her husband may be missing or arrested. And she’s fighting to abolish slavery in what was then Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). This was a French colony and the site of a major slave revolt leading to Haitian independence.

Even with all that is going on in the world of the play, Ross portrays Angelle as a calm woman with a quiet strength and confidence—someone who can soothe tensions and comfort others. With grace and polish, Ross speaks in an even tone and remains unflustered—up to a point. Everyone has their breaking point, and that includes Ross’s Angelle. When her situation becomes more desperate, the performer makes her character’s anguish and tears seem raw and real. Early in the play, you sense that Ross’s Angelle is someone others lean on when they’re upset. But later, she is the one who needs a shoulder to cry on—and tissues to wipe her tears.

While the program doesn’t credit them, at least two performers also portray villains who represent the extremists of the revolution. They are the ones looking to execute folks for little to no reason, and they also bring these women before the guillotine. Donning masks and appropriately dark clothing, they sound petty, loud, and unreasonable—caricatures of cruelty that contrast starkly with such elegant characters as Angelle.

Behind the Scenes: Direction, Design, and Atmosphere

While this production’s actors shine in their roles, the behind-the-scenes artists succeed as well. It starts with Nieves, who nicely balances humor with pathos, smartly stages the production, and also paces it well—the action never lags or races.

Carolina Ruiz’s sound design is clear, crisp, and her effects enhance the production. For instance, the authentic sound of a crowd or mob accompanies a scene in which the scaffold is about to come down on a character. It’s almost as though the mob is loudly urging the executioner to make the process long and painful for their entertainment.

Also, behind the scenes, costume designer Angelina Esposito’s clothing is period accurate and character defining. In addition, lighting designer Ricky J. Martinez illuminates the stage realistically and wisely uses a red hue to reinforce the show’s danger and passion.

Brown’s realistic set design doesn’t clearly anchor the play in a specific historical period. However, the inviting, roomy space—with its warm brown floor and walls—feels like the kind of place an artist could thrive. While the surface action unfolds in Olympe’s study, the truth is more abstract: we’re witnessing the workings of her mind as she marches toward her execution. If anything, the production might have more clearly communicated that we are, in effect, inside Olympe’s consciousness—watching her process, fear, create, and resist in the final moments of her life.

A Call to Recognize Our Own Revolutionists

Ultimately, The Revolutionists is an engrossing, entertaining, and thought-provoking play. It calls us to recognize the revolutionists in our own lives—perhaps even within ourselves. This is also a play about stories, words, and legacy. It reminds us of what it means to be human. Part of that, surely, is the universal desire to matter. Understandably, we want to create something that imbues our lives with meaning and outlasts us.

MSP, which began as a community theater, has transitioned gracefully into a professional theater company. It continues to produce meaningful work. And it can be proud of this compelling production of The Revolutionists. It’s just a shame the run didn’t last longer.

Photo by Sefanja Richard Galon, courtesy of Main Street Players

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.