Eonnagata.
Feb. 24th, 2011 11:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyEonnagata. Conceived & performed by Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage, and Russell Maliphant. Costume design by Alexander McQueen.
I had no real idea what to expect from this show, but I knew I had to go. I wasn't disappointed, either.
What I know about the Chevalier d'Eon comes from the anime Le Chevalier d'Eon and the section about the Chevalier in Marjorie Garber's book Vested Interests (though there's also a great section on the Chevalier and Marie Antoinette in Caroline Weber's wonderful Queen of Fashion), and to be quite frank my standards for this show were essentially, how does it compare to the anime? Which is sort of a weird standard to have, but there it is, and I think that in the end both the anime and this show are their own things, but that Eonnagata has a much less rigid approach to gender in general and to the gender of its protagonist in particular.
Eonnagata is a multimedia show that tells the story of the Chevalier's life more or less in order, with the three dancer-choreographers each portraying the Chevalier at different times and in different costumes and genders. The show incorporates ballet, modern dance, fighting, a life-size bunraku-style puppet giving a monologue, classical music, pre-recorded monologues and slide projections, and…well, it's brilliant. The fluidity of d'Eon's gender is perfectly matched by the choreography and the sensitive handling of the story, but I thought of Caroline Weber's description of the rigid gender roles of French society more than once, and in the end I'm not sure whether d'Eon's challenging of those gender roles or the roles themselves had the triumph; the Chevalier died poor in exile in Britain, and the underlying social mores of France weathered the Revolution intact.
Eonnagata takes its portmanteau name from the kabuki techniques by which men portray women, and the show's hybridity at all levels is dazzling. It was brilliantly done--the lighting and the music were amazing too--and not quite like anything else I've ever seen.
I had no real idea what to expect from this show, but I knew I had to go. I wasn't disappointed, either.
What I know about the Chevalier d'Eon comes from the anime Le Chevalier d'Eon and the section about the Chevalier in Marjorie Garber's book Vested Interests (though there's also a great section on the Chevalier and Marie Antoinette in Caroline Weber's wonderful Queen of Fashion), and to be quite frank my standards for this show were essentially, how does it compare to the anime? Which is sort of a weird standard to have, but there it is, and I think that in the end both the anime and this show are their own things, but that Eonnagata has a much less rigid approach to gender in general and to the gender of its protagonist in particular.
Eonnagata is a multimedia show that tells the story of the Chevalier's life more or less in order, with the three dancer-choreographers each portraying the Chevalier at different times and in different costumes and genders. The show incorporates ballet, modern dance, fighting, a life-size bunraku-style puppet giving a monologue, classical music, pre-recorded monologues and slide projections, and…well, it's brilliant. The fluidity of d'Eon's gender is perfectly matched by the choreography and the sensitive handling of the story, but I thought of Caroline Weber's description of the rigid gender roles of French society more than once, and in the end I'm not sure whether d'Eon's challenging of those gender roles or the roles themselves had the triumph; the Chevalier died poor in exile in Britain, and the underlying social mores of France weathered the Revolution intact.
Eonnagata takes its portmanteau name from the kabuki techniques by which men portray women, and the show's hybridity at all levels is dazzling. It was brilliantly done--the lighting and the music were amazing too--and not quite like anything else I've ever seen.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 20:45 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 05:08 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 21:39 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 22:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 19:55 (UTC)I want to write a story about d'Eon someday. It may or may not be an Onyx Court story; not sure.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 06:39 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-25 20:12 (UTC)Possibly I would say d'Eon is faerie-blooded. Or not. There are lots of possibilities.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 23:47 (UTC)