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Friday, March 06, 2009

Christine Jorgensen Reveals



Christine Jorgensen, world-famously sex-changed from man to woman in the early 1950's, is painstakingly brought to life before our eyes as Bradford Louryk lip-syncs to the (first?) transgendered celebrity's hourlong audio recorded interview from 1958. The piece is a breathtaking feat of theatre - Louryk's margin of error is nil, since even a cough would break the illusion - and it offers among many other things a fascinating peek at the era's societal attitudes about homosexuality and gender conditioning. Louryk may be limited to what Jorgensen said and how she said it on the recording, but his characterization is hardly limited by it - a full portrait emerges of a woman who met the public's freak-show fascination with grace, class, and candor.

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