Terror is the Order of the Day: A Tragedy of the French Revolution, Ben Heineman Jr.'s play about the two years in which the French Revolution turned to terror, runs at ART/NY's Mezzanine Theatre from February 26 to March 28, 2027, directed by Tea Alagić. That is more than four weeks Off-Broadway for a play that had ten days at the Flea last year.
The dates and company were reported by BroadwayWorld. ShowShow is executive producer and general manager, and lists the run for March 2027 at the Mezzanine Theatre, 502 West 53rd Street. Ticket prices and an on-sale date have not been announced.
The play starts in 1792, with the king deposed, tried and executed, and ends in 1794 with the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Great Terror. In between, the men and women who made the Revolution turn on each other, and the play follows Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just, Brissot, Madame Roland, Marat and Hébert as they rise and fall. Heineman tells it in a run of short scenes that jump between factions and social classes, and some of the lines are the historical figures' own words, lifted from speeches, diaries, letters, newspapers and the record of the National Convention.
Twelve actors make up the company: Ashley Bryant, Annabel Capper, Caitlin Clouthier, Erin Gann, Leland Fowler, Gideon Lazarus, Keshav Moodliar, Margaret Odette, Reynaldo Piniella, David Ryan Smith, Elizabeth Stahlmann and Joe Tapper.
The design team is Emmie Finckel (sets), Anya Klepikov (costumes), Carolina Ortiz Herrera (lighting), Jane Shaw (sound and original music) and Yana Biryükova (projections). Judi Lewis Ockler handles fight choreography and Cara Hagan additional choreography. Casting is by Stephanie Yankwitt & Company, Jane Skapek is associate director, and Sydney Prince and Luke Pietrantonio run production management.
Alagić was born in Bosnia and left during the war. She directed the premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size, and has worked at the Public, the Old Globe, the Goodman, the Abbey and the National Theatre in London, as well as on the Lincoln Center visit of Little Amal. Heineman comes to playwriting from law, government and journalism, and BroadwayWorld describes the run as his Off-Broadway debut.
The play was staged at the Flea Theater on Thomas Street, February 13–22, 2025, also under Alagić's direction, according to TDF's listing for that run.
