PLAY ANALYSIS DOCUMENT
Schwartz
TITLE: Revolt. She said. Revolt again.
DATE: 2014, Midsummer
Mischief Festival.
PLOT: The play really doesn’t
follow much of a plot structure,
more so jumping between rules to
break and bend at will.
KEY LIGHTING
ELEMENTS:
While the play doesn’t use
many lighting effects, the end
of Act 3 uses a quick and
dramatic shift in lighting to
punctuate the end of a
significant monologue/the
entire act.
KEY COSTUME
ELEMENTS:
N/A. Costumes are not
mentioned in this play.
LANGUAGE:
Fluid, conversational, and
occasionally sexual language
heightens the countercultural
angle which the play takes.
MESSAGE: Just because rules exist doesn’t mean they can’t - or shouldn’t - be broken. Everything can be revolutionized if you
ask the right questions.
YOUR NAME: E.J.
PLAYWRIGHT: Alice Birch
MIS-EN-SCENE: 20 WORD SUMMARY:
There is no physical set. This asks the audience to have a Birch constructs a series of abstract
scenes which serve to break rules,
more abstract understanding of the play, making the central
behave poorly, and make viewers
themes more poignant. Actors always stay onstage, reacting question gender norms.
to the main scene or otherwise continuing their lives.
NOTES: CONFLICT:
 “my choice my choice my choice my choice…” (Act 3) Gender roles and norms are
 If this play were to be given a set, how would that be consistently challenged
detrimental? Could levels be used effectively here? throughout Birch’s scenes.
 Having scenes with a prescribed number of gendered
“characters” but leaving them without names makes a
play very difficult to follow.
 Nameless, often gender-fluid figures are interesting to
me. They allow a further freedom than “established”
characters cannot provide. KEY ELEMENTS BEYOND
SPOKEN LANGUAGE:
There are no stage directions in
this play, making this question
CHARACTERS: N/A. There are no “main characters.” very tricky to answer.
STRUCTURE: KEY PROP ELEMENTS:
The play consists of many abstract scenes, often entitled N/A. There are no props.
“Revolutionize the X,” where X is a facet of life (language,
marriage, work, etc.). Each scene hyper-focuses on its facet
and tries to break gender-based rules seemingly whenever
possible. As the play continues, the line between actor and
character blurs, purposefully and impressively grounding
the play.
IMAGERY: SOUND:
Grandma and Dinah, the man quickly appearing and leaving Like “key lighting elements,”
Grandma and Dinah’s table, the monologue at the end of while the play doesn’t use many
act 3, the four women at the very end of the show’s sound effects, the end of Act 3
conversation. uses a loud noise to punctuate
the end of a significant
monologue/the entire act.