#26
Posted: 8/23/07 at 11:54am
I'd say she's played by the man for the same reason that Peter Pan is played by a girl."
I know you aren't being literal when you say they are played that way for "the same reason." But just to expand the topic to cross-gender casting as a larger issue, I think you’re right when you say that. Certain characters hold a certain dynamic about them in the context of the story that is better served by cross-gender casting.
As for Peter Pan:
- The role is too difficult for a child to play well.
- in the audience's minds, at the subconscious level at which they accept the character, it works because only a woman will never grow up to be a man.
So, I agree that Edna is played by a man for the same reason. Again, not literally, but in as far as the same dynamic could not be achieved without cross-gender casting.
If Edna were played by a woman, the character would not seem as grotesque and out of place in the outside world. Only a man can bring out all the things that are seen as the antithesis to the ideal, easily socially accepted woman in her time (tiny, pretty, clean, stylish.) Sure you could find a woman who is not all of thos things. But you can really bring something to it with a 6'2" 400lb man that you can't with a 5'10 250lb woman.
Divine played this best and as I feel Waters intended the role to be played. She was tall, enormously fat, dirty, greasy and sloppy. You kind of knew she smelled like cheese. She needs to be like this to echo and contrast as her generation’s version of what Tracy could have become if she hadn't grown up in the 60s with a loving and accepting father.
I know you aren't being literal when you say they are played that way for "the same reason." But just to expand the topic to cross-gender casting as a larger issue, I think you’re right when you say that. Certain characters hold a certain dynamic about them in the context of the story that is better served by cross-gender casting.
As for Peter Pan:
- The role is too difficult for a child to play well.
- in the audience's minds, at the subconscious level at which they accept the character, it works because only a woman will never grow up to be a man.
So, I agree that Edna is played by a man for the same reason. Again, not literally, but in as far as the same dynamic could not be achieved without cross-gender casting.
If Edna were played by a woman, the character would not seem as grotesque and out of place in the outside world. Only a man can bring out all the things that are seen as the antithesis to the ideal, easily socially accepted woman in her time (tiny, pretty, clean, stylish.) Sure you could find a woman who is not all of thos things. But you can really bring something to it with a 6'2" 400lb man that you can't with a 5'10 250lb woman.
Divine played this best and as I feel Waters intended the role to be played. She was tall, enormously fat, dirty, greasy and sloppy. You kind of knew she smelled like cheese. She needs to be like this to echo and contrast as her generation’s version of what Tracy could have become if she hadn't grown up in the 60s with a loving and accepting father.
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.
