A Queen, A Writer, an Assassin and a Spy Walk onto a Whitefish Stage

A queen, a writer, an assassin, a spy, and a guillotine will all share the stage during the Whitefish Theatre Company’s upcoming production of “The Revolutionists,” which will be performed multiple times in late February and early March.

The play written by Lauren Gunderson takes place during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror in the late 18th century.

In promotional material the Whitefish Theatre Company describes the play as following “a quartet of beautiful, badass women” as they “raise hell in Paris during the French Revolution” and  “conspire to avoid losing their heads—literally—during the insanity of the Reign of Terror.”

“It’s very, very funny, but it takes kind of a darker turn. Obviously with a guillotine on stage, that tends to set a certain kind of tone,” said Kim Krueger, the play’s director and the artistic director for the theater company. “I think people are going to be in for really a rollercoaster when they come see it.”

Playing Queen Marie Antoinette is Becky Rygg. Joy James will play the writer Olympe de Gouges. Sami Milne will take on the role of assassin Charlotte Corday, and Sarina Hart will portray spy Marianne Angelle.

“It’s four dynamic women who are in the show,” Krueger said.

Cast members have been able to draw on the history of their characters and supplement their understanding through research, although that task was more complicated for Hart, who is portraying a spy that Krueger described as more of a conglomeration of different historical figures.

“We kind of just let some of that go, and really started playing with how we would feel if we were in these situations,” Krueger said of the way the cast has approached the material as it relates to history.

Rehearsals have been going on since late January, and one point of emphasis has been what Krueger described as “sculpting” the comedic moments in a play that features double-entendres and at times pokes fun at itself.

“There have been so many laughs and tears every night depending on what part of the play we’re doing,” Krueger said. That interplay between comedy and drama reminds Krueger of a quote from the actor and director Ricky Gervais.

While being interviewed for radio in 2020 about his Netflix show “Afterlife,” Gervais told BBC Sounds “I thought … can people be laughing one minute, then crying the next? The answer is yes, because that’s real life.”

 Krueger compared the play to “Hamilton” in that it personalizes historical figures and uses modern language to make them more relatable. The play at times does poke fun at musicals, but it is not a musical. “The Revolutionists” contains what Krueger described as adult language and themes, and she encouraged anyone with questions to contact her.

“I hope this is a different kind of show than we’ve done here in awhile,” she said. “I would say this is actually in my top two or three shows I’ve ever been privileged enough to get to do as a director.”

Krueger first got a hold of the play in 2019, and there had been plans to slot it into the 2020 season. While reading through the script for the first time Krueger said she could see the play being performed in her head, something that she said doesn’t happen all the time. “The images and everything just started appearing and by the time I had put down the script I picked it back up right away and read it again,” she said.  Ultimately though, the theatre’s 2020 season didn’t happen because of the pandemic.

“We’ve been waiting two years to do this play,” said Jen Asebrook, the executive director of the Whitefish Theatre Company. Asebrook said that Gunderson’s plays are popular to the point that American Theatre magazine named her its most produced playwright in 2017 and 2019. In fact, the next play to hit the O’Shaugnessy Center after “The Revolutionists” is another Lauren Gunderson creation called “Bauer,” which focuses on the life of 20th century abstract artist Rudolf Bauer.

“One thing she really likes to do as a playwright is take real life situations in history, or real people in history, and try to come up with some sort of new fictionalized story about them,” Asebrook said.

Including intermission, “The Revolutionists” runs for about two hours. A preview performance of “The Revolutionists” is set for Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for that performance will be sold at the door only and cost $12 for adults and $10 for students. Additional performances are scheduled for Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, and from March 3 through March 5. Those performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. and ticket prices are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and $10 for students. A 4 p.m. performance is also scheduled for Feb. 27. For more information visit whitefishtheatreco.org.