A new comedy by American playwright Lauren Gundderson, “The Revolutionists,” is set in Paris in 1793, at the beginning of the “Reign of Terror” phase of the French Revolution. The play in fact starts with a beheading, then goes on to even more hilarious events as it brings together an unlikely “sisterhood of heroes,” including the doomed Marie Antoinette and the notorious assassin Charlotte Corday (also destined for the guillotine).
The playwright has acknowledged that she didn’t have to stretch very hard to elicit the relevance of her farce to our own times: “The shocking difference between the rich and the poor, the national debt amassed by needless wars, hunger, anger, inequality. Modern America really needs to have a long talk with 18th-century France.”
As a special one-time event, Chester Theatre Company is offering a free reading of the play Friday at 2 p.m. in Chester Town hall. 354-7771 to reserve a space.