Ostensibly a fictionalized account of the career of a 17th century actor, Edward (Ned) Kynaston, who made a name for himself playing women on stage. On a deeper level, Stage Beauty raises interesting questions about gender, love and sexuality.

In one telling scene, Kynaston (played by Billy Crudup) tells his companion that, in his experience, one person in each couple is “always a woman.” It would give too much away to put this quote in context, so I won’t.

I find it interesting to consider, however, how our modern concepts of sexuality-whether someone is homo or hetero-would not be seen as useful or important in a 17th century society. In that era, when marriages were usually based on anything but a romantic concept of love, and open discussion or consideration of sexual behavior of any kind was taboo, would anyone need to define themselves or others by sexual preference? It almost seems irrelevant.

It made me curious about what forces have been driving our current struggle to categorize sexual and gender roles.

Some funny parts, some dramatic parts but it plays it a bit too safe and takes the easy way out. Worth seeing for a romantic historical comedy with a few twists.

A little disappointing in the way Kynaston’s character sort of got straightened out in the end, but a nice piece of meta-theatre, anyway.