A New Zealand play about a pair of Danish artists living in Paris in the 1920s testifies to an emerging global sensibility amongst local writers who do not feel the need to proclaim their Kiwi identity.

The artistic ferment of the 1920s has a very contemporary feel and the show highlights how many of the ideas associated with the 1960s were forged 40 years earlier as an anarchic energy obliterated the profound disillusionment of World War I’s lost generation.

The play excavates the little-known history of the world’s first recipient of sex-change surgery and holds a mirror to current debates about gender and sexual identity. [More]

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For artists Einar and Gerda Wegener, 1920s bohemian Paris represents “exciting times”. War is over, cinema is changing the world, and in these enlightened times there is the sense that you can be whoever you want. 

Gerda (Alex Ellis), the portrait artist, is the “modern woman in trousers”, rejecting her gender’s traditional role; Einar (Simon Coleman), the landscape artist, finds expression in dressing in woman’s clothes as an alter-ego called Lili. Lili began life as a model for Gerda, but takes a life of her own as Lili began to appear publically and cause a sensation in the society. Lili realises that this is her “true self” and seeks surgery to change her gender. [More]

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A Model Woman has all the ingredients of a ‘fabulous’ story.  It is Paris in the 20s, the greatest city in the world that breathed fire and life into the culture of the 20^th century.  It was a time after WW1 when many thought things had changed and anything was possible. 

Great artists mingled in the cafes and had wonderful parties with modern music, glittering conversation and sex. It was a time of political, cultural and sexual liberation never before seen in such concentrated profusion.  It was the magnet for the artists of the world.

Gerda and her husband Einar Wegener were at the heart of this exciting time.  What a fantastic life they must have experienced.  The fascinating unique element to the story is that husband Einar discovered he was a woman trapped in a man’s body and became the first gender reassignment surgery patient in the world.  What a gold mine for a writer and director. 

Unfortunately this production A Model Woman barely scratches the surface. 

The play is set in the garret apartment studio of Gerda (Alex Ellis) and Einar (Simon Coleman) where Einar has returned to ‘meet the press’; to join with Gerda and tell their story.  He is about to undergo his final transformational operation into a woman who can bear children and live happily ever after.

A Model Woman then flashes back to early days when Einar becomes Gerda’s substitute female model.  He puts on a dress and discovers Lili.  Through the illustration by his wife, Lili becomes a female star in Paris culture.  As Lili becomes more and more ‘public’, Lili (Einar) and Gerda live the life of a lesbian couple. The story goes back and forward as we discover the real torment Einar is undergoing as he fights the male and female elements in his being. 

The love between this couple is palpable on stage as they argue and resolve issues that are still relevant today.  This part of the play was well acted and truthful delivered. 

Today many men dress in woman’s clothing in the privacy of their own bedrooms and parties.  Many men undergo surgery to become the woman they always knew themselves to be.  Perhaps we are more accepting of such changes with homosexual law reform, drag queens, transgender and cross dressing.  However the arguments and torments in the play are similar to our day and the relationship between the life partners is the same.  It is hard! 

A Model Woman is a play is about the transformation.  It is a theatrical experience the audience have come to share. A man changes into a woman, the woman is beautiful, skilful and of cultural significance. It is essential that the actor takes us there. 

Although Coleman has a gay grace, female makeup, and certain affectation, he doesn’t transform.  Clearly nervous on opening night, perhaps he could have been assisted by clever design.  However there is no use of wigs, fashionable period clothing, hats, makeup, or the trappings of a man who fools the cultural elite into believing he is a female fashion icon and has fun.  The only female elements are a single dress that looks like a dressing gown and several scarves – all dressed over black trousers, a white shirt and braces!  Not a good look for a girl with style! 

I want a moment when Einar becomes Lili.  I want to experience the real emotional and life energy of the woman illuminating the stage.  Good theatre has the ability to make us believe.  A Model Woman just doesn’t.

The direction is clever in its ability to move the actors around the single space with the audience in traverse.  But it misses the opportunity to give us a feeling of life in the 20s.  Surely images and sounds from the period could provide excitement and the fun as well as add value to the creative space.  Some of the audience don’t even know it is set in the 20s until they read the programme after the show.

Alex Ellis (Gerda) is a wonderful performer, as witnessed in Drowning in Veronica Lake.  In A Model Woman she is sensitive, funny, liberated but hampered by the visual straightjacket of (again) the black pants and white shirt she wears throughout.  It’s like saying “she’s a Lesbian” – which is not true. We don’t see the female artist, the lover of passion and the leadership style her art emanates.  Gerda was revolutionary but deeply committed to her partner; both the male and female versions.

Perhaps having the actor playing Lily (Simon Coleman) and the writer (Phil Osmby) both directing has made clarity of direction difficult. I know the limitation of productions in The Basement but this one needs a clearer direction and better creative solutions to fulfil the magic and drama of this fabulous story. 

A Model Woman is very disappointing. 

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