THE REVOLUTIONISTS Opens May 18 At Theatre Forty

The Revolutionist written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Melanie MacQueen will be presented at Theatre Forty, May 18- June 18, 2023.

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 (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.

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. It's a true story. Or total fiction. Or a play about a play. Or a raucous resurrection...that ends in a song and a scaffold.

The cast includes Kat Kemmet, Alana Webster, Meghan Lloyd, Sami Stumman and Ashlee Olivia.

Melanie MacQueen directs. Melanie MacQueen directs. Her directing credits at Theatre 40 include The Play's the Thing, Taming the Lion, Engaging Shaw, The Drawer Boy, Months on End, On Borrowed Time, Separate Beds and Roses in December. Her directing career spans several decades, and includes the award-wining musical that she also wrote and produced, In the Name of God, or Honk If You Love Satire, which moved from the Valley to Off-Broadway. Also an actor, Theatre 40 audiences might know her best from her appearances in the perennial cast of The Manor.

Lauren Gunderson, playwright, is the author of 21 produced plays. The recipient of an MFA from Tisch School of the Arts, she is a winner of the Berrilla Kerr Award. Her previous works include Silent Sky, A Short History of Nearly Everything; The Van Gogh Café; The Happy Elf; The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful and Her Dog!;I and You (made into a film starring Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams); and many more. The Revolutionists debuted in Cincinnati in 2016.

Stage manager: Don Solosan. Set design: Jeff G. Rack. Costume design: Michael Mullen. Sound design: Nick Foran. Lighting design: Derrick McDaniel. Hair/wigs: Judi Lewin.

241 S, Moreno Drive, in the Mary Levin Cutler Theatre (same venue, new name), Beverly Hills, CA 90212. The venue is on the campus of Beverly Hills High School. Free parking is available in the parking lot beneath the theatre. To access parking, enter through the driveway at the intersection of Durant and Moreno Drives.

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