| Stage Beauty | |
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 Stage Beauty film poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Eyre |
| Produced by | Robert De Niro, Hardy Justice, Jane Rosenthal |
| Written by | Jeffrey Hatcher |
| Starring | Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Zoe Tapper, Tom Wilkinson |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Films |
| Release date(s) | 8 May 2004 |
| Running time | 106 minutes |
| Country | UK / US |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Stage Beauty is a 2004 romantic drama film set in the 1660s, starring Claire Danes and Billy Crudup. It was directed by Sir Richard Eyre and adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from his own play, Compleat Female Stage Beauty. It follows the fortunes of and relationship between Maria (sounds like Mariah) (Claire Danes), one of the first actresses to perform female roles on the English stage, and Edward Kynaston (Billy Crudup), one of the leading male actors of these roles. Although the Maria character and the storyline is fictional, Margaret Hughes was not, and is often cited as the first woman to play female roles. The film includes real historical figures such as Edward (Ned) Kynaston, Samuel Pepys, Charles II and Charles II's favourite mistress, Nell Gwynne.
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Historical accuracy
Some of the film's scenes have a historical basis. The first English actress is indeed believed to have performed the role of Desdemona in Othello, although her name is unknown (Thomson, 206-7). The sequence in which Kynaston rides with ladies in a coach dressed as a woman is based on a contemporary anecdote. However, the film also contains some inaccuracies; in particular Nell Gwynne is represented as a mistress of the King who subsequently becomes an actress; in fact she was already a theatre actress when the King met her. The sequence in which Maria and Kynaston discover naturalistic acting is also anachronistic, as naturalism was not developed until the nineteenth century.
Filming locations
Most of Stage Beauty's external scenes were shot on location in Greenwich, London, at the 17th century Greenwich Hospital (now the University of Greenwich); some scenes were also filmed in the Hospital's Painted Hall.
Memorable quotes
- Ned Kynaston: “A woman playing a woman? Where's the trick in that?”
- King Charles II: “Why shouldn't we have women on stage? After all, the French have been doing it for years.”
Sir Edward Hyde: “Whenever we're about to do something truly horrible, we always say that the French have been doing it for years.”
- Ned Kynaston (who finds himself embarrassed when Maria uses this phrase against him as her own): “A part doesn't belong to an actor; an actor belongs to a part.”
See also
- Shakespeare in Love (1998)
References
- Thomson, Peter. 'English Renaissance and Restoration Theatre', in The Oxford Illustrated Guide to Theatre, ed. John Rusell Brown (Oxford University Press, 1995), 173-219.
