The Revolt: A Play In One Act

In Short

Set in Grandma Gregg's Flushing Academy of Household Science, this brisk one-act comedy follows Pauline, a weary student working off her tuition through endless scrubbing, as she encounters Susan Jane Jones, a militant suffragette working undercover. Susan attempts to radicalize Grandma Gregg's traditional students—who are already disgruntled over minor romantic grievances—into a band of man-hating female pirates. However, the revolutionary fervor evaporates instantly when the local boys call out from outside, revealing that youthful romance easily trumps abstract political ideology.

The Story

The play opens in the classroom of Grandma Gregg's academy, where Pauline is scrubbing the floors while lamenting that her tuition consists entirely of unending domestic labor. Grandma Gregg arrives, inspects Pauline's work, insists upon proper curtsies, and announces the arrival of new faculty, including a professor of "Husbandology" and a professor of rudiments. Susan Jane Jones then arrives as the new professor, secretly operating as a spy for the Militant Suffragettes to corrupt what she views as the last stronghold of the old-fashioned, home-loving woman. Susan demonstrates her method of coddling an inanimate "Ideal Husband" dummy by soothing its supposed hangover, though she privately abuses the dummy the moment she is alone.

Soon, student Kate enters in tears, complaining bitterly about how poorly she was treated by a boy named John Mason. Susan seizes upon this opening, feeding Kate anti-male rhetoric and arguing that women must crush and exterminate men. Pauline overhears these radical notions while hauling the dummy around to black its shoes and clean up. As the other students arrive, they recite traditional precepts and household maxims glorifying husbands and subservience, which Susan scorns in frequent aside remarks.

Grandma Gregg eventually leaves Susan in charge of the class. Left alone with the students, Susan encourages them to voice their grievances. The girls eagerly chime in, airing petty complaints about local boys like Arthur, George, Henry, and Sam failing to properly answer their calls, show up, or pay attention. Capitalizing on their discontent, Susan steers the conversation toward ambition, asking the girls what male professions they secretly desire. Kate wants to be a doctor, Grace a lawyer, Edith an editor, Ida a politician, May a vegetable market owner, and Pauline enthusiastically declares her lifelong dream of becoming a roaring pirate.

Encouraged by Susan, the girls enthusiastically abandon their sewing and scrubbing, wrap red rags around their heads, and arm themselves with table knives to form a navy for the Militant Suffragettes. They even resolve to capture Grandma Gregg to serve as their mandatory chaperone on a midnight raid. Before they can execute their plan, Grandma Gregg returns, completely unfazed by their pirate headwear and warning them away from ribbons that make them look like ditch diggers or pirates. Just as the newly minted pirates prepare to bind and gag Grandma Gregg, a series of distant bird-call signals ("Oo-oo!") echoes from outside.

The boys are calling for them from the street. Instantly dropping their radical ambitions and forgetting the revolution, Kate, Grace, Edith, Ida, and May rush to their coats and hats, eager to answer their beaus. Susan tries frantically to remind them of the cause, but the girls dismiss the revolution, declaring themselves to be just sweet girls and members of the "I.I. Club." They sprint out the door to join the boys, leaving Susan, Grandma Gregg, and Pauline behind. Pauline scolds the dummy for failing to call out to her like the other boys did, while Grandma Gregg resumes her knitting, bringing the chaotic rebellion to a quiet, traditional close.

How It Unfolds

• The endless chores begin: Pauline scrubs the floors of the Flushing Academy of Household Science from morning until night, realizing her tuition payment is nothing more than unending manual labor. Grandma Gregg inspects her progress, demands rigid curtsies, and announces the hiring of new faculty including a professor of Husbandology.
• The undercover spy arrives: Susan Jane Jones strides into the academy posing as the Husbandology professor while secretly acting as a militant suffragette spy. She demonstrates her radical approach to coddling an Ideal Husband dummy before privately venting her deep contempt for men.
• Grievances fuel the rebellion: A weeping student named Kate complains about a boy named John, prompting Susan to radicalize her against male oppression. When the rest of the class gathers for lessons and recites traditional subservient precepts, Susan mocks them under her breath.
• The birth of the pirate navy: Susan invites the students to share their romantic frustrations regarding local boys who ignore them. Spurred on by Susan and Pauline, the girls abandon their domestic duties, fashion pirate gear out of rag bags, and arm themselves with table knives.
• The call of romance: Just as the student pirates prepare to capture Grandma Gregg as a chaperone and launch their anti-male revolution, distant bird-calls from the local boys ring out. The girls instantly abandon the cause, throw on their hats, and rush out to join the boys, leaving the revolution behind.

The People

• Grandma Gregg: As the founder of the academy, she wants to preserve old-fashioned, home-loving domestic values and train young ladies to be good, obedient wives. Nothing stands in her way except the subversive elements trying to infiltrate her school, and she ends the play entirely unruffled, placidly knitting while her students run off to see the boys.
• Pauline: Working out her tuition as a servant, she wants a proper education and a break from endless scrubbing, but briefly entertains a grand ambition to become a bloodthirsty pirate. Her path is blocked by her low station and relentless chores, and she ends up promoted to professor of rudiments, still scrubbing while longing for an affectionate husband.
• Susan Jane Jones: An emissary of female supremacy and a militant suffragette, she wants to corrupt Grandma Gregg's academy and incite a revolution to extinguish men. Her primary obstacle is the deeply ingrained domestic tradition of the school and the fickle, romance-driven nature of the students, and she ends up defeated as the girls abandon her cause for teenage boys.
• Kate and the Students: These young ladies want romance, attention, and appreciation from local boys like John, Arthur, and George. They are hindered by perceived male neglect and strict academy rules, and they end up abandoning their brief pirate revolution the moment the boys call out to them.

In Its Own Voice

Reflecting on the grueling reality of her education, Pauline expresses her frustration with domestic science:

I don't care much for the higher education when there is so much scrub in it.

Detailing her militant mission to overthrow traditional values, Susan Jane Jones outlines her subversive intent to the audience:

From in it the tender young girls learn the vicious habits of keeping house, being good housewives and attending to their own affairs as their grandmothers did.

Reciting the daily wisdom expected at the academy, Ida summarizes the traditional view of gender roles taught by the institution:

The man is noble, strong and brave; Woman should be his loving slave.

What It's Really About

The play satirizes the early-twentieth-century cultural friction between traditional domestic expectations for women and the rising militant suffrage movement. Butler explores how abstract political ideologies and grand revolutionary doctrines collide with ordinary human desires, particularly youthful romance and teenage vanity. The students' sudden shift from violent man-hating pirates back to giggling girls eager for male attention suggests that ideological posturing runs thin against basic social impulses. Furthermore, the comedy pokes fun at rigid institutional dogmas on both sides, contrasting Grandma Gregg's absurd fixation on endless scrubbing and curtsies with Susan's equally absurd calls to exterminate men like dodo birds.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy light, satirical comedies with sharp period flavor will find this short play delightful. It reads with a brisk, theatrical energy, capturing the humorous absurdity of turn-of-the-century social debates through exaggerated characters and snappy dialogue. Modern readers should approach it with historical awareness, recognizing that its humor relies on period caricatures of suffragettes and traditionalists alike. While contemporary audiences might notice dated tropes and simplistic plotting, the play's charm lies in its playful self-awareness and comic timing. It feels like a breezy vaudeville sketch that lampoons extremism from every angle. What stays with you is the sheer theatrical fun of young ladies trading sewing needles for pirate knives, only to drop them instantly for a boy's bird-call. It is a quick, entertaining glimpse into how early American popular culture processed shifting gender roles with a chuckle.