The Chameleon Club

The Chameleon Club symbolizes the gap between who people really are and what they present to the world. Although many of the club’s clientele live traditional and respectable lives, at the club they dress as members of the opposite sex and behave in ways they wouldn’t in public.

The performances at the club represent the state of mind of the other characters at each point in the narrative: the first sequence in the club focuses on the raw emotion of Yvonne when she sings about the death of a former lover, reflecting Gabor’s passion for art and expression which brought him to Paris; Arlette and Lou’s nationalist routine reflects the growing political tensions in France in the years before the war; the song about a woman calling home to check in with her staff (in which she is informed of...