The Revolutionists
“Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, and try to beat back the extremist insanity in 1793 Paris. This grand and dream-tweaked comedy is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world.”
-Dramatists Play Service
Role
Scenic Designer, Charge Artist, Props Designer, ATD
The Design
Inspired by brutalist architecture, the goal of the scenery design was to create a harsh, looming presence of the guillotine over the main character’s writing study. The beton brut treatment of the structures was meant to convey the oppressive weight of formed concrete, while the minimal railings and burlap skirting still suggested a scaffold temporarily erected. The neutral coloring of the scenery created contrast with the strong colors in the costumes. Because the characters in the play are fabrications of the writer Olympe de Gouges, the costumes included a motif of written text in the skirts. The text motif was carried into the burlap skirting of the scenery, adorning the guillotine scaffold with the very words that would land Olympe upon it.
Credits
Play by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Kiara Pipino
Stage Managed by Bel Mendoza
Costume Design by Bethany Marx
Lighting Design by Scott Segar
Technical Direction by Scott Segar
Photos by Matt Grenier, Michelle Schneider, and Kiara Pipino
SUNY Oneonta Theatre Department, October 2021
Fine Arts Center, Hamblin Theater
