Servant of the Revolution

5/31/09

JULIANNE DONOVAN plays LENCHEN

After being unashamedly sidetracked by life, Julianne Donovan has recently returned to theatre. She won the Best Actress Runner-Up Award and People’s Choice Award for her performance in Mary Anne Butler’s I AM in Short and Sweet 2007 (Arts Centre). She performed in a string of plays in 2008, such as Amelia Roper’s Camberwell House (Dog’s Breakfast Festival, Monash University) and Clickety Tock (Tipsy Teacup Productions, Fitzroy Town Hall). Julianne has appeared in short films — Cherry Bomb (VCA), Being Barry (Film Vic) and Trains and Buses — as well as in the Channel Nine series Canal Road.

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Blog keeper

This blog is kept by Anitra Nelson, writer-producer of Servant of the Revolution, which played from 21 July through to 1 August 2009, at the Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre in Brunswick. Servant of the Revolution is a work of creative nonfiction, and this production was directed by Brenda Addie. The play is based on historical fact — that communist revolutionary Karl Marx secretly fathered an illegitimate child borne by his wife's servant, Lenchen (Helene Demuth) — who is played by Julianne Donovan. Marx's collaborator and best friend Engels — played by Ray Tiernan — pretended to be the father, and the child Freddy was fostered out at three weeks old. Well, that's the backstory, the nonfiction. But what is creative, imaginary, about the work? It takes the point of view of the historical character we know least about, Lenchen. What kind of relationship did she and Marx have? What kind of tensions were caused in the household?