Supporting Praxes of Community and Sisterhood through Ritual and the Play within the Play

Audre Lorde, bell HOOKS and Mikki Kendall&s;s notions of community and sisterhood are interrogated in this chapter, where Gunderson&s;s The Revolutionists and Backhaus&s; Men on Boats are analysed to lay bare their suggestion that working together is necessary for feminist success. Men on Boats explores how feminist ritual within the play can enable individuals to work together in a group setting without losing their individuality; through the use of exaggerated boating scenes, the ‘men’ are forced to put their differences aside and persevere together. In The Revolutionists , Gunderson considers how women from vastly different backgrounds can overcome their prejudices and work together to enact change; set during the French Revolution, the play uses the concept of writing a play within a play to bring together four women who otherwise would never have interacted. Both plays encapsulate how community is only achieved through difficult means and how certain community members must acknowledge their privilege to be their most useful.