Role:           Robespierre
Where:        Bailiwick Repertory Theatre
Playwright:  Christopher Cartmill

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We did this play called Incorruptible. It was a six hour play about the French Revolution. It was an original play.  I played Robespierre, who was onstage about 90 percent of the time, so it was me and then some other person talking and yapping away.  And the first half of the play we got before we started rehearsing. The second half of the play was supposed to arrive as we opened the first half - but it didn't. In fact, we didn't get the script until two weeks before we were supposed to open the second half.  And that made me do more than I thought I was capable of and taught me about how fast you really can work if you have to. So that was a good experience.

(clip)  I showed up on the first day of rehearsal off book and didn't pick up my book during block and rehearsals or anything the whole time of the first half of the play because I wanted everyone to get up to that speed because we were climbing such a big mountain and I knew that if the lead doesn't even look at his script, nobody else is gonna do that - because actors, frankly, are competitive. So the best gift you can give your director is to really get off book quickly, as quickly as you can because everyone else will follow suit.  But that was a really good experience; we got good awards off of that, we got a LOT of awards.  We were the "toast of town." Christopher Cartmill is a heck of a good playwright, really good.  JM.com 2007

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"The production falls apart accordingly. James Marsters, as Robespierre, drowns in the sea of nonmaterial, a promising young actor allowed only to rise to occasional oratory (speechmaking greatly contributed to Robespierre's climb) and otherwise strike embarrassing poses as Great Historical Personage." Sid Smith · Chicago Tribune · June 20, 1989

"At the center of the storm is James Marsters, in a masterful portrayal of Robespierre that captures the man's repressed passions and ferocious, self-righteous rage."  Hedy Weiss · Chicago Sun-Times  · June 21, 1989