Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again

Through a series of arresting vignettes and a collection of nameless characters, Alice Birch examines the language, behaviour and forces that shape women in the 21st century. The play asks what’s stopping us from doing something truly radical to change them?

Written in response to the provocation that well-behaved women seldom make history, the play is an assault on the language that has fueled violence against women throughout history.

Problematic language frequently attached to women is interrogated, from lazy sexist clichés to the conventions around a marriage proposal. Through doing so, the play rails against the conventions of work, sex, motherhood, aging and love.

Revolt. She said. Revolt again was first performed at the 2014 Midsummer Mischief Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. It transferred to the Royal Court Upstairs and was more recently produced at New York’s Soho Rep.

It is published here in a Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Marissia Fragkou, who locates the play in our contemporary political and cultural context (including second- and third-wave feminism, and the #MeToo movement).

Alice Birch has written for the Royal Court Theatre, BBC Radio 4, Old Vic, Comédie de Valence, Almeida Festival, Clean Break, Schaubühne and RSC. She has been on attachment to the National Theatre Studio, Royal Court Theatre, Paines Plough and Channel 4. Her play Many Moons was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and she was winner of the George Devine Award for Most Promising New Playwright in 2014.

Marissia Fragkou is Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts and joined Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. She has published and presented papers on contemporary British and European theatre and performance, as well as performance and cultural politics, ethics of responsibility and radical democratic politics.