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Holy unexpected impact!
Mar. 17th, 2012 05:44 pmWe saw "Romeo and Juliet in NC" tonight. I was looking forward to it because it is approached through an LGBT lens. I must admit, I approached it with some skepticism about this, fearing it would be yet another example of certain letters being silent (and silenced) - there's a reason it's sometimes written as "Gl...bt."
I'm pleased to say I was absolutely wrong about that. Gender identity factored into it. Tybalt was cast as and played by a trans man. Mercutio as and by a trans masculine person. Benvolio was trans feminine, though the presence of this in the character was such that I only realized it when the cast spoke of it in the discussion held afterwards.
Two points moved me to tears. In Act 1 Scene 4, Mercutio at the line "borrow Cupid's wings," he* raised his shirt to his shoulders for an effect that struck me as becoming flip or mocking. In doing so we saw the ace bandage wrapped about his chest. At "What curious eye doth quote deformities?" a line was added extending the deformities point and he pointed to his bound chest, making it into a clear statement of how that assigned female at birth character viewed himself.
Tybalt only became obvious when he fought Romeo. When he tore off his shirt I could clearly see the scars from his top surgery.
Both occasions brought tears to my eyes because of a realization: I was watching trans parts portrayed by trans people, people with bodies like mine (how much varies, obviously, but each struck me as more like mine in important ways than how I could identify with the others.) There's a awesome power in this. I felt a personal connection to the production that I couldn't have imagined happening.
* A note on pronouns: the actor who played Mercutio (and Abram) brought up this point in the discussion and stated using both feminine and masculine pronouns. What was not present was any real statement of pronoun preference; I use here the more common pronouns used for him during the discussion.
I'm pleased to say I was absolutely wrong about that. Gender identity factored into it. Tybalt was cast as and played by a trans man. Mercutio as and by a trans masculine person. Benvolio was trans feminine, though the presence of this in the character was such that I only realized it when the cast spoke of it in the discussion held afterwards.
Two points moved me to tears. In Act 1 Scene 4, Mercutio at the line "borrow Cupid's wings," he* raised his shirt to his shoulders for an effect that struck me as becoming flip or mocking. In doing so we saw the ace bandage wrapped about his chest. At "What curious eye doth quote deformities?" a line was added extending the deformities point and he pointed to his bound chest, making it into a clear statement of how that assigned female at birth character viewed himself.
Tybalt only became obvious when he fought Romeo. When he tore off his shirt I could clearly see the scars from his top surgery.
Both occasions brought tears to my eyes because of a realization: I was watching trans parts portrayed by trans people, people with bodies like mine (how much varies, obviously, but each struck me as more like mine in important ways than how I could identify with the others.) There's a awesome power in this. I felt a personal connection to the production that I couldn't have imagined happening.
* A note on pronouns: the actor who played Mercutio (and Abram) brought up this point in the discussion and stated using both feminine and masculine pronouns. What was not present was any real statement of pronoun preference; I use here the more common pronouns used for him during the discussion.
