A real-life rule-breaker
Revenge Song is based on the life of Julie d’Aubigny, a 17th-century opera singer, cross-dresser, bisexual, and swordfighter whose love life was fictionalized in the 1835 novel La Maupin. For more on d’Aubigny, go to our link to the Los Angeles Public Library’s in-depth article on her life and career.
“Theories and Effects of Political Humor: Discounting Cues, Gateways, and the Impact of Incongruities”
Revenge Song is as political as it is hilarious, and this article in The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication offers a historical perspective on the use of satire. The play uses various jokes and scenarios to examine normative, binary social constructs and inspire us to imagine a world beyond them. “Satire questions the existing political or social order,” the article’s author, Dannagal G. Young, states, “usually by juxtaposing the existing imperfect reality with visions of what could or should be. So, while satire can be biting and even aggressive in tenor, the underlying premise of a satirical text is often optimistic, as it suggests we (collectively) deserve better. In the words of Bloom and Bloom (1979), ‘The satirist who goes about his task skillfully gives the reader a double reward: the pleasure of an aesthetic experience coupled with the reasonable hope that a stable political order may be attainable.’”
—Regina Victor, Revenge Song dramaturg