Gilbert Theater, the theater with a pulse, is living up to its reputation and community roots with its latest production, The Revolutionists by Laura Gunderson. A fictional tale set in the very real French Revolution, the play follows four women as they make their mark and push to change their world for the better. The show runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 15, Friday- Sunday. Tickets can be purchased at the box office located at 116 Green Street or online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36002/production/1236837. General admission tickets start at $25.The Gilbert offers discounts for seniors, military and educators.
The Gilbert Theater, since its inception, has never shied away from productions that question the status quo or dive headfirst into political, social and economic themes. As a true community theater, the Gilbert has welcomed them with open arms, daring to explore these often uncomfortable themes on stage. While The Revolutionists is set during the French Revolution, its themes of feminism, revolution (and its cost), speaking out versus staying silent, art versus action, and sisterhood have never been as relevant in the world that we live in, as right now.
This is something the all-woman cast is aware of, and one of the biggest reasons that many of them auditioned for this particular show. The women cast in this production come from different ethnic, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, much like the women they will portray on stage.
Playing playwright, Olympe de Gouge, is the highly talented Sara Kennedy. This marks her first performance on stage since taking a 16-year sabbatical to focus on marriage, motherhood, and her career as a North Carolina educator. Jennifer Newman is a Gilbert veteran, whose most recent role on the stage was as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Newman is taking on the role of the often misquoted, fantastical, and eventually beheaded French royal, Marie Antoinette.
Gracing the stage for her premier role at the Gilbert is the lovely Aneta T. Lee. Hailing from the metro-Atlanta area, the well-traveled Lee is jumping feet first with excitement into her role as the Haitian rebel, Marianne Angelle. Rounding out the cast is the versatile Sydney Dukic as assassin Charlotte Corday.
Leading this cast of extraordinary women is Claudia Warga-Dean, a theater regular and educator. Artistic Director Matt Lamb was intentional about his choice for the production to be female-run, ensuring the integrity of the story being told. The Revolutionists is a comedy, but it's also a warning, a bat-signal of sorts, to the dangers of an exclusive society that finds no room for diversity and basic human rights, especially for women’s rights.
“This play can be hard to put [into] words. It’s a feminist comedy. And it starts with Olympe de Gouges, she’s the playwright during the French Revolution. She is an actual person. She wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women, and she’s a female citizen, and she’s fighting for equality, and there’s so much history there. She ends up getting beheaded, and the play starts right before she’s about to get beheaded,” Warga-Dean explained.
“Three historical figures show up, two that are actual historical figures, and one that is a representation of many different women. They all come to this space with different ideas of what the revolution should be or how they should approach it. And it’s also a play about sisterhood and coming together and being there for each other, even when it’s hard and heartbreaking, and even in the face of violence and oppression. It’s meta theater. We acknowledge we’re in a show, so we talk to the audience, and we look at the sound booth and give cues. It’s a comedy with guillotines, believe it or not. It also explores the question, who is art for? Is it for everybody? Is it only really being created for one group of people? Could it be both?”
The themes, while lightened with humor and comedy, are heavy when the outside world seems reflective of what is supposed to be fiction played out on stage. Every cast member is fully aware of what this play means and how important it is to speak up and be just as loud as the opposition.
“I don’t think this play will ever not be relevant. I hope one day that it is because this is really encapsulating the feminist movement that happened in the 1700s and again in the 1800s and again in the 1900s, and again now,” said Newman. “Who are we, and why are we not on the same playing field? This show really is important because women now more than ever need to come together as a team, amongst all backgrounds. Everybody needs to come together and fight for women, whoever you are. There’s power in that today. There’s power in that always.”
“Each day I wake up, take a look at the news, and take a look at each and every incident that is happening in our country, today and in our global world. Because this is not just about what’s happening in the United States, it’s affecting the global world, which is exactly what happened during the French Revolution. We are literally going through the exact same thing right now,” said Lee.
“When will women ask ourselves, ‘what has this revolution given us?’ And if the answer is nothing, when will we take it for ourselves? That is the line that I get to say, as I’m presenting to the National Assembly,” said Kennedy. “I’m [.....] about what’s going on. It’s not okay, and it hurts me deep in my soul. I’m doing this show. It makes me angry because have we not earned anything? We have women who are being censored for what they are saying, and things like that are not ok. None of this is okay.”
“I teach history. I go in, I go home, and I see the news, and then I have to go in, and I have to teach our kids how to stand up for what [they] believe in. Fight for what is right, be the change. And it’s so important now because we are so divided,” said Dukic.”
Each of these women sees herself in her character and their plight, making this production not just relevant but possibly art that will speak loudly.
For more information about the Gilbert Theater, visit online at https://www.gilberttheater.com/ 

(Photo: The four women of The Revolutionists' cast from left to right: Aneta T. Lee (Marianne Angelle), Jennifer Newman (Marie Antoinette), Sara Kennedy (Olympe de Gouge) and Sydney Dukic (Charlotte Corday). Photo courtesy of The Gilbert Theater)