The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers is a coming of age story about the young D’Artagnan, who travels from Gascony in the South of France seeking to join the illustrious King’s Musketeers in Paris. Along the way he loses his heart to the young Constance Bonacieux. Yet it is the seductive Milady deWinter who is at the center of many intrigues in the story. In the second half of the novel the focus of the tale is upon Milady deWinter, yet in many adaptations she is relegated to a minor role. Shotgun company member Joanie McBrien became interested in exploring the challenges faced by the women in the play and her adaptation gives a broader perspective on both the heroes and villains. The Three Inseparables are not without flaws; D’Artagnan makes rash choices in affairs of the heart, and Milady deWinter is far more than a voluptuous villainess. Dumas crafts each character so that no one is wholly good or wholly evil. Shotgun Players create their own version of the tale to capture the adventure, style but also the deeper layers present in the novel.