The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women
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Book Overview
A play with intense audience participation Engrossing controversial courtroom drama where the audience must serve as judge and jury deciding motions and verdict in a case against the five women who betrayed the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov the last surviving daughter of the Tsar of Russia. Complex ethical questions on a set of folding chairs.
The Anastasia Trials is a farcical but profoundly engaging excursion into the hidden world of ethics for women who are both survivors and perpetrators of abuse toward women. The format is a play-within-a-play where a radical feminist theatre company comes together in order to perform a courtroom drama. The play is shaped by the audience decisions to overrule or sustain the attorneys' motions and every night's audience sees a different play.
In presenting the play the Emma Goldman Theatre Brigade has instituted a new system to insure equal opportunity for the actors: a lottery. As the women assemble to draw their roles from the hat for the evening's performance sisterhood is put to the test. The performance itself is a conspiracy trial against five women accused of denying a woman her identity. The plaintiff is none other than Anastasia Romanov sole survivor of the massacre of the Russian imperial family in 1918.
ÿ "Elegantly conceived...A feminist Noises Off." - Washington City Press
"Powerful." -San Diego Lesbian Press
"Farce social history debate play agitprop audience participation melodrama satire that] makes the head reel " -San Diego Union Tribune
"Wild... It's lively and moves quickly... Very funny yet poignant." -Washington Blade
"Carolyn Gage's raucous multilayered script explores issues of empathy loyalty and betrayal among women..." --The Washington Post.
"Verdict: An unexpected delight... " --Miami Herald FL.
"... farcical humor imaginative plot twists and just pure theatrical fun..." --South Florida Sun-Sentinel Ft. Lauderdale.
"... fascinating and complex play..."--Fresno Beehive.com
"I am constantly amazed at Carolyn's ability to make complex social issues not only accessible but also irresistibly fascinating... the play... The Anastasia Trials ] touched us made us laugh and gripped us in a white-knuckle intensity usually found only in Hitchcock films." --R.J. McComish Literary Manager of the Portland Stage Company Portland Maine.
"... fabulously interesting brilliantly thought-provoking and exquisitely funny... masterpiece of feminist theater..." --off our backs Washington DC.
"Each performance could potentially have a different result and many students saw every performance just so they could see how the show ended."--At Oldfields Glencoe MD.
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