STAGE BEAUTY

DISTRIBUT OR ESTIM ATES AV AILABILIT Y AS: Current | VIDEO: N/A | COUN TRY: United Kingdom | DISTRIBUT OR: lions Gate Films | DIRECT OR: | LEADS: Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, , Ben Chaplin, , Richard Griffiths, | RUNNIN G TIME : 105 minutes | RATINGS: ON i4A / BC 14A / AB 14A / MB 14A / SK 14A / Maritimes 14A

A Gala Presentation at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, STAGE BEAURY is set during the heady years of the English Restoration, and its vibrant tale of conflicting passions is the perfect vehicle for the commanding talents of Billy Crudup (ALMOST FAMOUS), Claire Danes (THE HOURS) and Rupert Everett (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST). In 1661, Edward "Ned" Kynaston (Crudup) is the most powerful star in London. As the prevailing law prohibits women from acting, Ned plays all the best female roles, regularly bringing the house down with his portrayal of . Maria (Danes), Ned's dresser, pines for her employer despite his ambiguous sexuality; she is also determined to defy the prohibition and has already secretly appeared onstage. News of a mysterious woman's performance scandalizes the clergy, but simply reduces Ned to laughter. "A woman playing a woman?" he quips. ‘What's the trick in that?’ Now that the monarchy has been reinstated, Charles II (Everett) is earning a reputation as a fun- loving patron of the arts and a strong opponent of the Puritanism that led to his father's execution. Persuaded by his saucy mistress Nell (Zoë Tapper), ‘King Charlie’ repeals the ban against women on stage; hopefuls now crowd around theatres, batting eyelashes at anyone who might give them an audition, and a host of female stars soon emerges. In the midst of this sudden chaos, Ned finds himself desperately - even dangerously - out of favour. After she becomes an overnight sensation, Maria is the only person in London who refuses to abandon Ned to an ignominious end. She challenges him - professionally and personally - to reinvent himself and perform men's roles. Reality and art seem too close for comfort in the resulting battle of the boards in which the two of them play out Desdemona's death scene before an awestruck audience. Everett is brilliant and buoyant as the unpredictable, irascible Charles II, while Danes and Crudup master complex material with tremendous skill, offering up thundering formal performances during the film's stage-acting sequences, and impressing all the more when negotiating their characters' difficult behind-the-scenes passions. In STAGE BEAUTY, director Richard Eyre (IRIS) crafts a thoughtful meditation on love, sex and identity, balancing moments of heightened tragedy, emotional intensity and sparkling comedy with aplomb.

"STAGE BEAUTY is indeed a thing of ribald beauty."-Adrian Hennigan, BBC Films