{"id":4448,"date":"2009-02-20T02:16:01","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T02:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=4448"},"modified":"2011-02-13T01:26:15","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T01:26:15","slug":"eonism-and-eonnagata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2009\/02\/20\/eonism-and-eonnagata\/","title":{"rendered":"Eonism and Eonnagata"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"deon.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The Chevalier d’Eon wins a fencing bout.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve known of the cross-dressing Charles-Genevi\u00e8ve-Louis-Auguste-Andr\u00e9-Thimoth\u00e9e d’Eon de Beaumont\u2014or the Chevalier d’Eon<\/a> (1728\u20131810) to give him his title\u2014for some time thanks to a typically witty and informative entry by Philip Core in Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth<\/em> (1984). The nobleman rubs shoulders there with the equally flamboyant Henry Paget<\/a> (1875\u20131905), Fifth Marquess of Anglesey, known as “the Dancing Marquess”, and Romain de Tirtoff, better known as illustrator and designer, Ert\u00e9<\/a>, who we see in a photo dressed as “Claire de Lune”. Aside from his status as a historical curio, and a failed attempt by Havelock Ellis to borrow his name to describe transvestism\u2014Eonism, the Chevalier seems less celebrated than he might be. So it’s a pleasure to hear that theatre director Robert Lepage has created a new stage production, Eonnagatta<\/em><\/a>, based on the Chevalier’s colourful life:<\/p>\n

For a long time now, the actor and experimental theatre director Robert Lepage has been fascinated by the life of the Chevalier d’Eon, an 18th-century French soldier who had a flamboyant career as a diplomat and secret agent for Louis XV, and spent much of his adult life dressed as a woman. Officially, the Chevalier’s skirts were worn as a professional disguise: his exceptionally fine features allowed him to pass easily for a woman, and thus move around undetected as a spy. But the Chevalier didn’t just do it for the job. He was a genuine cross-dresser, an 18th-century transvestite.<\/p>\n

Lepage’s fascination has now led to Eonnagata<\/em>, a daring collaboration inspired by the life of the Chevalier that gets its British premiere next week. The work has been put together by four very different, and internationally acclaimed, artists: there’s Lepage, the choreographer Russell Maliphant, the dancer Sylvie Guillem and the fashion designer Alexander McQueen. That’s quite a team – and the result is a unique hybrid of their art forms. How would they describe it? Maliphant gives it a go: “It’s not pure dance: it doesn’t have Sylvie doing splits or amazing falls. But it’s not pure theatre, either.” (More<\/a>.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Eonnagata.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, a camp character from a camp era, then, although the Chevalier slightly predates the Regency camp of Beau Brummell and his foppish entourage. D’Eon was renowned for his prowess as a swordsman and despite its lethal nature there’s something camp about the swordfight, especially in its 18th century incarnation when fencing matches reduced the deadly art of the rapier duel to a mannered, rule-bound sport rather like a ballet with weapons. Being a spy for Louis XV, the Chevalier’s swordplay would have been a serious business and there’s something satisfying about the engraving above which shows him besting an opponent in a fencing match for the English Prince Regent; this was a man who was capable of defending his non-conformity to the utmost.<\/p>\n

\"deon3.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The unusual title of Lepage’s stage production is derived from the onnagata<\/em>, male actors in Japanese kabuki<\/em> who perform female roles. This tradition may explain why the Chevalier’s character has also been used as the basis for a recent Japanese anime series, Chevalier: Le Chevalier D’Eon<\/em><\/a>, one of the few fictional manifestations of his life.<\/p>\n

D’Eon is a member of the Secret Police, working in the shadows to keep the peace within French society. When his sister suddenly turns up floating down a river in a coffin with ‘Psalms’ written on it, D’Eon is thrown into a deadly struggle with revolutionaries and supernatural forces in order to uncover the truth behind his sister’s death. D’Eon looks remarkably like Lia, which turns to his advantage whenever he needs to meet with a ruler who was once Lia’s friend.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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left: The Dancing Marquess relaxes; right: Bridget from Guilty Gear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the way that most anime boys are distinctly androgynous, he wouldn’t have to try too hard to impersonate his sister. And impersonation gives a boy an excuse to drag up, of course, rather than leaving the series writers to tackle (or ignore) the adventure-unfriendly issue of gender confusion or transvestism. Japanese culture seems far more open to this kind of identity play than we’re used to here. The character of Bridget in fighting game Guilty Gear<\/em><\/a>, for example, is actually a boy who was “born in a village where the birth of twins of the same gender was considered bad luck, and hence his family named and raised him as a girl.” Can you imagine American film or TV executives approving a story\u2014for kids, yet\u2014with a cross-dressing central character? Neither can I. I’ve yet to see any anime which can hold my attention for long but Chevalier<\/em> may be worth seeking out. If anyone has seen it, please leave a comment.<\/p>\n

Eonnagata<\/em> runs from 26 Feb\u20138 Mar 2009 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The men with swords archive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chevalier d’Eon wins a fencing bout. I’ve known of the cross-dressing Charles-Genevi\u00e8ve-Louis-Auguste-Andr\u00e9-Thimoth\u00e9e d’Eon de Beaumont\u2014or the Chevalier d’Eon (1728\u20131810) to give him his title\u2014for some time thanks to a typically witty and informative entry by Philip Core in Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth (1984). The nobleman rubs shoulders there with the equally … Continue reading “Eonism and Eonnagata”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,42,56,57,19,46],"tags":[243,245,1090,843,244,63],"class_list":["post-4448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animation","category-books","category-dance","category-fashion","category-television","category-theatre","tag-alexander-mcqueen","tag-chevalier-deon","tag-havelock-ellis","tag-philip-core","tag-robert-lepage","tag-swords"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-19K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}