“I’m not a feminist”, he said “so this play is sort of…”
“A thorn in your side,” I said as we exited the lobby doors headed for intermission. It is a dangerous play. And there are few things more dangerous than putting four intelligent women in a room together.
Especially when the women are a playwright, an assassin, a queen and a freedom fighter. Suddenly, you have the recipe for Lauren Gunderson’s “The Revolutionists,” now playing at International City Theatre.
What always surprises me about this play isn’t how funny the play is (though it is laugh-out-loud funny), but how deeply it understands the strange balancing act between art and activism — between speaking truth and surviving long enough to speak it.
Set during the darkest days of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, “The Revolutionists” imagines a meeting of historical figures who never actually shared a stage, but who feel as if they’ve been waiting more than two centuries to have this conversation.
Olympe de Gouges, the playwright and early feminist whose advocacy ultimately led her to the guillotine, joins Charlotte Corday, the assassin who killed revolutionary firebrand Jean-Paul Marat; Marie Antoinette, history’s most famous royal scapegoat; and Marianne Angelle, a fictionalized composite representing Black women revolutionaries fighting colonialism and slavery in the Caribbean.
If that sounds like a history lesson, don’t worry. This is not your high school French Revolution. In fact, “The Revolutionists” has developed a surprising history of its own in Long Beach.
Lyndsi LaRose and Amie Farrell in ICT’s “The Revolutionists,” on show through June 28, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Jordan Gohara/ICT).
Nondumiso Tembe, Sarah Pierce, Lyndsi LaRose and Amie Farrell in ICT’s “The Revolutionists.” (Photo courtesy of Jordan Gohara/ICT).
Sarah Pierce, Amie Farrell, Nondumiso Tembe and Lyndsi LaRose in ICT’s “The Revolutionists,” on show through June 28, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Jordan Gohara/ICT).
International City Theatre’s production of “The Revolutionists” is on show now through June 28, 2026. (Photo courtesy of ICT).
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Lyndsi LaRose and Amie Farrell in ICT’s “The Revolutionists,” on show through June 28, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Jordan Gohara/ICT).
This is the third local production I’ve seen over the years, and each time the play has felt as though it belonged here. Long Beach has always been a city of activists, artists, iconoclasts, and people determined to build community while challenging the status quo.
Whether it’s being produced in an intimate theatre or on one of our larger collegiate stages, Gunderson’s celebration of bold women, big ideas, and spirited debate seems to resonate with local audiences. Perhaps it’s the city’s independent streak. Perhaps it’s our embrace of diverse voices. Or perhaps it’s because Long Beach has never been afraid of a little revolution itself.
Director Jamie Torcellini keeps the action moving with remarkable energy, embracing Gunderson’s blend of historical fact, theatrical fantasy, modern language, and absurdist humor. The result is a gathering of brilliant minds trapped in history while simultaneously commenting on the present.
And that present day resonance lands with startling clarity.
Gunderson wrote the play nearly a decade ago, yet its themes feel ripped from today’s headlines. Questions about extremism, political polarization, women’s rights, race, power, and the role of artists in turbulent times echo throughout the evening. Yet the play never becomes preachy. It remains first and foremost a comedy, and a very good one.
The cast is uniformly excellent.
Amie Farrell brings intelligence, vulnerability and more than a little neurotic charm to Olympe de Gouges, whose struggle to finish her play becomes the engine that drives the evening. Sarah Pierce’s Charlotte Corday is fierce, focused, and wonderfully deadpan. Lyndsi LaRose gives Marie Antoinette a delightful mix of vanity, innocence, and unexpected depth, finding genuine humanity beneath the powdered wigs and ribbons. Nondumiso Tembe grounds the production with a commanding presence as Marianne Angelle, providing both moral clarity and emotional weight whenever the script threatens to float entirely into whimsy.
Together, the four actresses create the kind of ensemble chemistry that makes theater magical. They argue, laugh, dream, challenge one another, and occasionally break the boundaries of the play itself.
The question remains, what do artists do when the world is on fire? We tell stories. We make connections. We remind one another of our humanity.
In an era when outrage often feels easier than understanding, “The Revolutionists” offers something increasingly rare, a play that is thoughtful without being self-important, political without being partisan, and hilarious without sacrificing heart.
International City Theatre’s production is smart, timely, beautifully acted, and consistently entertaining.
History tells us these women lost their heads.
This production proves they never lost their voices.
If you go
Where: International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way.
When: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through June 28.
Cost: Tickets cost $56 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays; and $59 on Sundays.
Info: Call 562-436-4610 or go to internationalcitytheatre.org.