Revenge Song, now playing at the Allen Elizabethan Theatre, is a lavishly produced punk musical, 1990s style, based on a real-life 17th century French bisexual singer and sword fighter, Julie d’Aubigny.
The author, Qui Nguyen, and director, Robert Ross Parker, were in school together when they and others formed a company called Vampire Cowboys and started creating their first works, including Revenge Song. Their objective was to break the rules of traditional theater and bring forth gender-bending, BIPOC superheroes inspired by comic books.
That’s what they’ve done with this manic, violent, funny, offensive, self-indulgent spectacle. The audience is somewhat split, with one faction relishing the naughtiness, and the other, seen-it-all folks, pondering the need to hear the F word endlessly spoken trippingly on the tongue.
What all can agree on is that the performers, many of them new to the festival, are oozing with talent. Eight actors play numerous roles, and Reina Guthrie, styled after Joan Jett, is a riveting powerhouse as Julie, whom she portrays as a rock star.
The real Julie was an opera singer, which was the hot new thing in the roaring 1690s, but to show just how hot she was, she’s played as a rock queen. Guthrie sings many of the songs written by Shane Rettig, Nguyen and Parker, including heavy metal, femme, punk, hip-hop and even tender ballads with sweet harmony.
And, in spite of sexual abuse, excessive alcohol and drugs, self-cutting and more, Julie keeps seeking, and finding, love. After all, she’s a comic book superhero.