Stage Beauty, directed by Richard Eyre, takes place in the era of Charles II of England (1660-1685). The film is adapted from Jeffrey Hatcher's play Compleat Female Stage Beauty. When the film begins, only men can act in stageplays by law, so men alone play the part of females. The royal decree is of considerable benefit to effeminate men, including feminine gays, but of course excludes women. Samuel Pepys is quoted in a title at the beginning of the movie as conferring highest praise on the acting ability of Edward "Ned" Kynaston. We next see Kynaston (played by Billy Crudup) portraying Desdemona in Othello, while his dresser and secret admirer Maria (played by Claire Danes) lipsyncs Desdomona's dialog. After the performance, Kynaston asks for a percentage of the profits in his new contract, but the owner of the theatre counters that he can instead have the right to refuse any new hire in the cast. Maria, nevertheless, wants to play Desdemona, believing that Kynaston allows Desdemona to die in a manner that no woman would permit. In an illicit performance at a pub, Maria under the stagename of Mrs. Margaret Hughes plays Desdemona to the delight of the audience. Soon, word spreads about her talent, and she gets help from the chambermaids as well as the mistress of the king (played by Rupert Everett) in an effort to join the cast. After Kynaston exercises his right to refuse to allow "Mrs. Hughes" to join the cast, he is roughed up one day, and the king issues a decree restricting actors to play parts of their own sex, claiming that the church has pressured him to do so. Stage Beauty then exposes the consequences of that decree. Kynaston, trying to become a more masculine actor, discovers that he cannot act the part of a man; he is also spurned by his erstwhile Othello, the Duke of Buckingham (played by Ben Chaplin), who decides to marry a woman rather than allowing a masculinized Kynaston to service him. In desperation, Kynaston then gains employment by acting as a woman in a ribald burlesque house, a humiliating turn of fortune. Meanwhile, Maria realizes that she cannot act; she also feels guilty for having consigned Kynaston to a lesser position in society. Accordingly, she tries in vain to masculinize him, and later she begs him to teach her how to act. Unsurprisingly, all the problems are resolved in the final scene due to some unusual developments, and everyone is happy. For those seeking to place the film in some sort of historical context, filmviewers will doubtless recall that Charles II, who is portrayed as effeminate and even as an occasional crossdresser in Stage Beauty, was the Restoration monarch who followed the rule of Oliver and Richard Cromwell. MH
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