"Cross-Dressing, Drag, and Passing: Slippages in Shakespearean Comedy"

To read this essay by Jennifer Drouin in its entirety, click here!

For quick notes, keep on reading...

Summary: Published in Shakespeare Re-Dressed, Jennifer Drouin’s essay evaluates how and why some of Shakespeare’s characters dress as the opposite sex. Are these characters only “cross-dressing,” or are they doing something more significant?

• "Do women characters disguised as boy pages in Shakespearean comedy really ‘cross-dress,’ or might they be engaging, instead, in a quite different practice…? When is what Shakespearean scholars label ‘cross-dressing’ really cross-dressing, and when is it something else, what contemporary queers more accurately call drag and passing?” (Drouin 23) 
• What is “queer?” 
• Sometimes an insulting word used to describe those who identify as homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered 
• A re-claimed title; a political word used to describe the LGBT community that usually carries radical connotations 
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer
• Socialist Review, “Queer Politics: the Debate” http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=11336
• Wikipedia on Queer Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_theory

• Cross-Dressing: As Drouin writes, cross-dressing is commonly done in contemporary Shakespeare productions, usually when women play men’s roles. Historically, “cross-dressing, or transvestism… is a theatrical practice that dates back to the ancient Greeks, who, like the early modern English, banned women from their stages and therefore had to represent female characters through masks worn by male actors” (Drouin 24-5). 

• Drag: Contrary to cross-dressing, which is a means of imitation to fulfill a practical purpose in the theatre, drag is “self-referential and sometimes parodic” (Drouin 26). “Drag queens and drag kings tend to highlight their artificiality rather than conceal it,” mostly for comedic effect or entertainment purposes (26). Drag is usually presentational, heightened, “’almost but not quite’ right”(Drouin 23). Think of Ru Paul, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, or even the British pantomime (a short play done at Christmastime (which is NOT silent but actually involves a lot of music!) in which a male actor usually plays a very campy female character). Perhaps most famously, think of Tim Curry as Frank N. Furter… Each of these is an example of drag. We are never meant to believe any of the male actors are female. We understand they are doing a parody, making a presentation, etc. 

• Passing: “Passing is the quotidian [every-day] street equivalent of theatrical cross-dressing,” Drouin writes (30). A person who is “passing” is successfully disguised as the opposite gender; they don’t stand apart at first sight from someone who is naturally, biologically of that gender. “Passing is the camouflaging of one’s sex by one’s preferred gender, the strategic creation of an identity that has no original essence” (Drouin 32). Someone may be trying to pass for a number of reasons. Namely, in Shakespeare’s plays, female characters try to pass for safety, or power. In real life, a transgendered person would probably “pass” in the public eye on most occasions. For example, Felicity Hoffman’s character in TransAmerica is a male-to-female transsexual. “Bree” was biologically born male, but she always felt like a woman. A real-life and unfortunately tragic example is the story of Brandon Teena, dramatized in Boys Don’t Cry with Hillary Swank. As this story demonstrates, passing can have serious consequences if the illusion of gender “slips.” There are often social consequences for non-compliance with gender norms.

What does this have to do with our show?

Think of Rosalind, first as a female character played by a male actor. This is cross-dressing. Nothing more to it. That male actor is playing a lady, and we accept this as audience members.

Now, think of Rosalind as a female character. Rosalind dons a boy’s attire in order to escape from her uncle’s court to political safety in the forest of Arden. When Rosalind walks onstage and says to us, “I could find it in my heart to disgrace my man’s apparel and to cry like a woman, but I must comfort the weaker vessel [referring to Celia], as a doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat,” she is practicing drag. She acknowledges her manly dress and behavior in spite of her true, feminine identity, and we, the audience, know she is playing at being a man, for our amusement… This is drag.

Finally, think of Rosalind, the female character, performing as Ganymede, a boy, for Orlando. Orlando genuinely believes Ganymede is a boy, as does Phoebe, to much comedic effect. Because these characters don’t see Rosalind as female but as Ganymede, a young man, Rosalind is passing.

The interesting thing about this is the way Rosalind goes from drag, to passing, back and forth, for the sake of heightening dramatic tension and entertaining the audience in the play. She jokes with Celia about her dress, and yet successfully hides from her father, the Duke, in the forest. Shakespeare wrote a great little gender manipulator.

So. Think about how you want to play your character in As You Like It. If Rosalind is played by a female actress, as a female character, pretending to be a male drag queen, what else could we do with the characters in this play to blur the lines of acceptable gender identities?

Questions to ask yourself:

• Am I simply cross-dressing, by playing a role that is the opposite gender of the one I identify with? Am I playing a character in drag, who acknowledges the difference between their biological body and the gender they play? Or, as a character, am I trying to pass as the opposite gender to the other characters in the play? Do I want the other characters onstage to believe I am male/female? 
• What gender behaviors do I exhibit? How do I respond to being provoked? How do I dress, act, carry myself? 
• What is my voice like? Do I hide my voice, or embrace it? 
• Am I aggressive or passive? Am I easy-going or high-strung? How do I respond to those around me? 
• How do I feel about the space of the drag club? Am I comfortable here? Am I outspoken and loud here? Is this the only place I can be myself, or is it the only place I can escape and be someone else? 

There are a lot of complex questions about identity and gender in this play. Make some fun choices! Experiment! Look for support for your decisions in Shakespeare’s text, or see what other meanings you can glean from the Bard’s words. Either way, enjoy, and as always, contact your dramaturg with questions!

Source: Drouin, Jennifer. "Cross-Dressing, Drag, and Passing: Slippages in Shakespearean Comedy." Shakespeare Re-Dressed: Cross-Gender Casting in Contemporary Performance. Ed. James C. Bulman. Cranbury: Associated University Presses, 2008. 23-56. Print.