Toujours 1789
This production combined key episodes of the French Revolution, from early attempts to reform the monarchy to the queen's execution, with light musical intervals largely drawn from the vast repertoire of revolutionary and other contemporary songs. Royals, nobles and clergy vs the People. Marie-Antoinette, Robespierre, The Storming of La Bastille, Declaration of the Rights of Man, jugglers, royals on the run, la guillotine, it had something for everyone!
Our own script, inspired by, and adapted liberally from, Le Théâtre du Soleil, parallels their production with perspectives from other work on the same theme. Comic and tragic, the production celebrated the ethos of collective creation, both in our scripting and in the input of performers, as a signal of a response to oppression across the ages.
Cast
Grace Appleby – Marie-Antoinette
Roger Baines– Louis XVI
Cintia de Santana Tavares – Mariette, Julie, l’enfant de choeur, une femme
Fred Dessard – Le comédien Dindon, Gaspard, le clergé, Siéyès, Sir Harold, Citoyen 2, Le Chapelier, Lafayette,
un homme, un paysan
Mae Duval – Le médecin, le tambour, Necker, Mounier, Mirabeau, le banquier, un paysan
Jed Golder – le comédien Ane, Mr Blankensee, Thuriot, Malouet, un homme, un paysan
Dillon Gurney – Le comédien Lion, le marquis de Beau-Baiser, le porte-chaise, un homme
Dominic Heafield – Camille Desmoulins, Candide, un bateleur
Dominique Limon –Jeanne, Olympe de Gouges, une femme
Erwann Limon – Figaro, Danton, un bateleur
Eugenia Loffredo – Marthe, le pape, la duchesse de Polignac, une femme, une paysanne
Clarice Marchal – Le garde, le Tiers Etat, De Breuil, Barnave, une femme, un homme
Verity Roat – Babeuf, un bateleur, un homme, une femme
Glynis Robshaw – Marguerite, Toinette, la princesse de Lamballe, Rose, la femme des Halles, un paysan
Wendy Smith – Marie, Justin, un député, l’évêque de Langres, un bourgeois, le Parisien, Citoyen 1, un bateleur
Claudine Tourniaire – Nestine, Robespierre, un bateleur
Tunu Shikuku – Une femme, un homme, la duchesse de Beauséjour
Gordon Turner – le comédien Corbeau, le prélat, un député
Elijah Watmough-Smith – Le seigneur, la noblesse, Artois, Dutrinquier, Delaunay, Jésus, un bourgeois
Ralph Yarrow - Marat
Production
Direction – Ralph Yarrow, Erwann Limon, Claudine Tourniaire
Production manager – Claudine Tourniaire
Stage manager – Seanie Nye
Assistant stage manager – Rohan Houghton
Publicity and school liaison – Roger Baines, Claudine Tourniaire
Website – Roger Baines
Lighting design – Sophie Kenward, Ralph Yarrow
Costumes – Mae Duval, Maddermarket Theatre
Prop making assistance – Tori Davison
Musical direction – Bob and Suzie Hanna, Erwann Limon
Poster – Elise Limon
Photos - Tom Ade-Parsons
Film - Lucy Potter
Programme – Claudine Tourniaire
Front of house – Reece Bond, Ellena Fox, Sylvain Pourciel, Bénédicte Rebouillat, Ilse Renaudie, Nana Osei-Bonsu, Sam Woolford
Thanks to Julia Hook, Rob Little, Chad Mason
Images from the production
Film of the production
Act 1: The play opens with an actor playing Figaro, the irreverent hero of Beaumarchais’ Mariage. He writes a letter to his mother from the prison where he was incarcerated after performing in the play. Throughout the play he will reappear under the guise of a street entertainer, and together with various other buskers, will guide the audience through some of the main events.
The opening scene is a fable showing a feeble lion (representing the king) forced by a turkey (the nobility) and a raven (the Church), into riding a donkey (the people), who rears and throws him off. This sets the scene for the fate of King Louis 16th, a well-meaning but weak monarch swayed by his wife and the all-powerful ruling classes, intent on holding on to their privileges (including the exemption from taxes). An extract from Ionesco’s Le Roi se meurt follows, developing the theme of a regime in a state of irreversible decay. The following scenes are short tableaux illustrating the plight of the common people and the major events that are about to unfold. A poor peasant woman is bullied by the local bishop and nobleman into paying crippling taxes that she cannot afford. The same nobleman, back from a hunting party, bursts into a cottage where a woman is about to give birth, demanding that the water and clean linen prepared for the newborn are used to soothe his sore foot and clean his boot. Two couples with starving babies kill them to put an end to their misery. Things seem to be looking up when the king instructs the people of France to voice their concerns in writing. A wave of optimism sweeps through the peasantry, grateful for Louis’ initiative and hoping that the taxes will be abolished. Back at the palace of Versailles, the king bemoans the dire state of royal finances. Necker, the popular finance minister, advises the king to convene an assembly of the Estates General, a meeting between representatives of the three orders (the clergy, the nobility and the Tiers Etat or bourgeoisie), whose task will be to reform France’s feudal tax system and restore the country’s finances. The clergy and the nobility initially try to impose the status quo by asking that each order cast one vote (which would automatically defeat the bourgeoisie). The Tiers Etat insist on voting per head. As some nobles and members of the clergy are in favour of reform, they would secure a majority. Queen Marie-Antoinette criticises her husband for following Necker’s advice and allowing members of the clergy to rejoin the Tiers Etat. The king then attempts to prevent the meeting from taking place by locking the doors to the assembly room. The Tiers Etat then decides to use an indoor tennis court, and in a famous oath, orchestrated by Mirabeau, a key reformist among the nobility, its members swear not to leave until a National Assembly has been formed. This will pave the way for a constitutional monarchy. After a head-to-head showdown with Mirabeau, the king has seemingly been defeated. At the same time, however, Louis orders 20,000 troops (mostly
foreign regiments) to surround Paris. This is a turning point in the king’s reputation, as he is suspected of only paying lip service to reforms whilst plotting to reinstate the old regime. A scene shows him as a two-faced king. Much of the people’s hatred, however, is directed against Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian queen accused of placing her frivolous pleasures above the interests of France and exploiting her husband’s weakness. Other members of her clan such as the Comte d’Artois (Louis’ youngest brother) the Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Polignac, are also reviled by the people. In a short interlude, taken from Jean Genet’s Paravents, two Frenchmen in some African country, then part of the French empire, boast about their rose gardens and their skill in imposing discipline among the natives on “their” land. Back to reality, the threat of an attack on Paris by foreign troops is soon compounded by the news that the king has dismissed Necker. Panic spreads among financiers, who close banks and the stock exchange. Camille Desmoulins, a journalist, breaks the news of Necker’s dismissal and of the risk of military repression. In a famous speech, he urges the people to take up arms to defend liberty. The obvious place for weapons being the Bastille, the mob marches in that direction. Delaunay, governor of the Bastille, initially refuses to open the gates, then relents, but shots are fired, panic sets in, Delaunay is massacred, and the Bastille is taken.
Act 2: The people of Paris are celebrating the storming of the Bastille in a scene of drunken euphoria, culminating in the famous Carmagnole song. They mention how the king had to accept the tricolour cockade from the mayor of Paris as a symbol of the alliance between king and people. But the rule of law still prevails, and riots are likely to be severely repressed. Marat makes a speech lending his support to the people in the defence of their rights. Away from Paris, the Grande Peur (Great Fear) prevails as starving peasants and various bandits attack farms and chateaux, pillaging and murdering and terrorising the population. On 4th August, the abhorred feudal privileges are at last abolished, although many of the nobility, after agreeing to divest themselves of their prerogatives, are taken aback by the extent of the reforms. A parliamentary debate at the National Assembly follows, much of it focusing on whether a declaration of the rights of man should be added as a preamble to the new constitution. A majority of deputies are in favour. The declaration is published in the form of posters and pamphlets. Three prostitutes try and make sense of it, struggling with the jargon and some of the finer points, not to mention the allegorical images of France, Justice, and Reason. Enter Olympe de Gouges, a playwright, political activist, and feminist, who makes a speech declaring equality between the sexes and advocating a national assembly of women. A comic dialogue between two bourgeois, happy to see that their class will probably benefit the most from the reforms, is interrupted by the voices of Robespierre, Danton and Marat, arguing that all citizens are equal and must be treated as such. Meantime the king hears that he has the right to veto the decrees of the National Assembly, although this right is limited to a mere postponing. His authority is now limited by the force of law, and absolute monarchy has come to an end. Marie-Antoinette enters, overjoyed at having been applauded… not by the people however, only by a foreign regiment stationed in France, whom the king and queen will join in a sumptuous banquet. The rumour of the banquet only aggravates the general resentment directed at the king and queen. A group of women march towards Versailles, intent on demanding bread and bringing back the royal “bakers” (Louis and Marie-Antoinette) to Paris. From now on the royals will reside at the Tuileries palace in the centre of the capital, until their imprisonment in the Temple sometime later. Meanwhile at the Vatican, news reaches the pope that equality of all citizens has been declared in France, where the church now falls under the authority of the constitution, and church property has been confiscated.
The pope is naturally appalled (but not supported in this by Jesus…). The next scene tells of the king and queen’s botched attempt to escape. They are recognised and arrested on their way to the eastern border, where the plan was to gather troops and stage a counter-revolution. They are brought back under escort, now as prisoners. France becomes a republic. A regime of Terror is established, aimed at eliminating enemies within and outside the country. Large numbers of suspects are sent to the guillotine. Robespierre, who rules over the all-powerful committees, tries to dissuade Camille Desmoulins, an old friend of his, from opposing the Terror. He has ordered the burning of Desmoulins’ newspaper office and hopes to wrench him away from the influence of Danton, without success. Desmoulins advises Robespierre to speak to Danton, who also refuses to follow Robespierre on his path towards dictatorship. The audience are left to guess that the fate of both Desmoulins and Danton has been sealed. The final scenes show two opposing views on the revolution: a moderate one represented by Barnave, a radical one by Babeuf. For now, most of the leading actors of the revolution are executed. The Figaro actor ends his letter on a note of continuing revolution in which artists have a duty to speak out. For now, monarchy has come to an end but is soon to be replaced by Napoleon’s own brand of dictatorship.