Longwood’s production of “The Revolutionists”, performed by the theatre department, was astounding. All of the actresses in this show did a phenomenal job in playing their roles and with keeping the audiences’ captivated, even with only four people being in the cast. Not only did the acting impress me, but the production was just extremely well done in every aspect. From seeing “Little Women” to now seeing “The Revolutionists”, the productions just keep getting better and better.
The acting carried this production. The actresses featured were Camden Arkesteyn as Olympe de Gouges, Queen Kincaide as Marianne Angelle, Raine Bence as Marie Antoinette and Angel Lambaiso as Charlotte Corday. I was blown away by the performances and could not take my eyes off the stage. Arkesteyn played her character so dramatically, which fit extremely well for the context of all of her scenes and Lambaiso portrayed the sweet, young, passionate character so well. Everyone really played their roles perfectly and the casting could not have been better.
Bence absolutely shined in her role as Marie Antoinette. Her facial expressions were perfect and her ability to express all emotions so accurately is very impressive. Whether her lines were comedic, emotional, or sarcastic — Bence delivered them flawlessly.
While I was impressed with all of the actresses, I have to specifically give praise to Kincaide, who played Marianne Angelle. You can tell just from watching Kincaide that acting comes so naturally to her. She took my breath away every time she was on stage, but specifically in the second act. When her character, Marianne, found out her husband is dead, I got immediate chills. Kincaide had phenomenal delivery in that scene and you could literally hear the emotion in her voice. When “Marianne” had to read the letter she wrote for her husband, her performance brought tears to my eyes. In the following scene, in her exchange with Arkestyn’s character, Olympe, she masterfully depicted her character’s transition from sadness to anger. Extremely breathtaking performances from everyone.
I also want to note some things that I noticed, and enjoyed, in the production. The execution scenes were really well done. I liked that, throughout the whole play, the character’s joke about wanting (or not wanting) to turn the play into a musical and then the only singing parts are after a character is executed. I thought that this was super impactful. I also paid attention to the colors of Marie’s ribbons and how they changed throughout the show. Specifically, how she always had more than one ribbon, but at her execution, she only had a single red ribbon. Also how, for the first time in the whole play, the ribbon falls out of her hand at the execution.
While I was extremely impressed with the execution of the play, the script borders on extremely cheesy. Though this is something completely out of the theatre department’s control, it is worth noting.
The writing is also a little confusing and the lines are overly blurred between the real historical stories versus the fictional ones made for the plot. That said, the script did effectively balance comedic and emotional material. Furthermore, this play perfectly placed curse words within the dialogue without making them excessive.
Despite the slightly weak script, it was still a great production. I also want to give praise to the crew on this production. The costuming was beyond beautiful and the set design was also incredibly impressive. I also enjoyed the lighting positioning for the different scenes.
Overall, the Longwood production of “The Revolutionists” was breathtaking and I was beyond impressed with the crew's work and the performances of the actresses. All the effort that went into this show was truly evident. The production of “The Revolutionists” was a huge success and has been my favorite show yet (hold for the script). I would absolutely recommend staying tuned for the next theatre production!
5/5 Stars
