ABBY PAIGE

It’s a privilege to be working on a play like Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists right now. This fast-paced comedy tells the story of four women trying to survive the French Revolution, and the unique forms of courage with which each of them faces the uncertainty and violence surrounding them.

Gunderson’s work often focuses on powerful female characters whom history has overlooked, and here she focuses on several real revolutionary women. I’m thrilled to be playing the part of Olympe de Gouges, a feminist playwright whose radical writings on women’s equality made her a target during The Reign of Terror. De Gouges’s Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne was a feminist answer to Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and a close contemporary of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Having been married off at a young age against her will, de Gouges advocated for the education of girls and divorce rights for women, ideas that were both radical and almost possible at the height of the Revolution.

This play feels especially meaningful now because, while it is set in the past, the language is hilariously contemporary. It feels as though the Reign of Terror is happening right now — and for many of us, it is. Attacks on education, science, the arts, and public institutions of all kinds — not to mention wrongful imprisonment, false accusations, and attacks on free speech and freedom of expression — all feel deeply…relatable at the moment. The Revolutionists asks urgent questions about the role of artists at a time like this, the importance of friendship in the midst of chaos, and the lengths to which we’re willing to go to live up to our beliefs.

If you’re in the Montpelier area, I hope you’ll come out for this fun evening of theater, and if you’re far away, there is also a live stream option available. Get your tickets now!