Andrew Ajaka
THEA 203- Technical Productions
The Revolutionists Reflection Paper
Friday, September 21st, 2018
In reading the play The Revolutionists: A Comedy, a Quartet, a Revolutionary Dream
Fugue, a True Story by Lauren Gunderson, I must say that I am quite excited to see it come to
life on the stage here at Binghamton University as it opens next weekend! I was immediately
intrigued by the way the play cleverly satires itself with a cheesy intro which, within lines, it
identifies as such and begins the story of Olympe and her struggle to write. Even more so, by the
time we get to the end and this beginning is almost reprised in the end as a way to illustrate
Olympe’s death, I was plagued with goose-bumps from head to toe. I also thoroughly enjoyed
each of the character’s individual personalities. From Marie’s parody of the modern day
teenager, to Charlotte’s crazy fire, to Marianne’s calm collectedness, I was incredibly invested in
each word that was said and each one of these character’s fates. I cannot wait to hear the way
that Our Song is arranged for the play and the way it is implemented as Olympe is faced with her
own fate. I must also say, a storyline I found myself deeply enamored by was that of Marianne
and Vincent. Although we never meet Vincent or see the two of these characters together, the
writing of the show makes you fall in love with their relationship so that the moment you read
about the envelope with the blue ribbon, even before Marianne has entered and seen it, your
heart sinks into the pit of your stomach and you feel every bit of loss that you know Marianne is
feeling in that moment. This is a moment I know is going to be fantastic to see performed on
stage come opening night, and I am super excited to see it unfold.
In regards specifically to the costuming of this show, I find that there is so much that can
be said with the way these characters are dressed throughout the progression of the play and the
events within. First and foremost, the corsets and gowns that these ladies are dressed in will
immediately allow us to identify the era and location they are from without the need for immense
degrees of context. In can see each dress being a different color completely, each one of their
dresses ranging in vibrancy relative to their personalities. In accordance to this, Marie would
have the most vibrant colored dress while Marianne would have the least vibrant colored dress.
This would also apply to the amount of on-body accessories the ladies will have throughout the
show as well as the amount of make up and wigs these characters will be wearing throughout the
run of the show. I can also see each character with a drastically different number of costume
changes. I believe Marie, being the character she is and coming from her place of royalty, would
have a different outfit for every single new scene she enters into, or at least a new wig. The final
aspect of costumes and make up that can really change the way this show is seen and put
together in the end is the change from the ladies when they are their respective characters, to
after their death when they begin to play themselves playing the Fraternité in the second act. The
script says to address this change solely with the use of a mask, but I would also have the ladies
have a very drastic costume change from the gowns they’d been wearing for the beginning of the
show. I would have them change into a sleek black dress to juxtapose a white mask that runs
solely across their eyes as they take on their new role as obstacles for the remaining ladies. This
is of course until the very end when they take back their roles as just the ladies that they were
when they were alive. As this change happens, I would ideally want them to be changed back
into the gowns and corsets they had on in the very beginning of the show, but if this costume
change is impossible, I would also be happy seeing them wear an accessory to compliment the
black they are wearing matching the color of their very first accents on stage. .
