Neil Bartlett’s two-hander (technically a three-hander) is a complex meditation on gender and identity. It’s based on the life of Victorian cross-dresser Stella (born Ernest) Boulton who survived a scandalous court case and went on to have a successful career as a female impersonator.
A theatrical encounter with a truly remarkable person, Stella is a new show inspired by the strange life and lonely death of Ernest Boulton – one half of the now-infamous Victorian cross-dressing duo Fanny and Stella.
With America passing new laws to prevent gender-panic in cottages, and supermodel Andreja Pejic turning heads all over the global media – not to mention our very own and very marvellous Rebecca Root and Paris Lees – you could be forgiven for thinking that trans is the new queer. You might also think that gender-transformation in all its contested varieties is something that post-dates hormone treatments and surgery. Well, no.
