Christine Jorgensen Reveals
26 August 2005

"This is fascinating. Briefly, in the early 1950s, Christine Jorgensen was the most famous woman in the world. She was a transsexual who had previously served in the US army, and on her return to America, following surgery in Europe, she was caught in the full glare of the world's media.

This show is based on her only recorded TV interview. It makes compelling viewing, for it is most revealing not of Jorgensen herself - who proves to be beautiful, intelligent and media-savvy - but of the attitudes of the time. The interviewer, played by Rob Grace on film, is male and his attitudes towards Jorgensen are a mixture of the appalled, the seductive and the prurient. At one jaw-dropping moment he inquires as to what happened to the Jorgensen genitalia that was surplus to requirements.

This is a very classy show that avoids any prurience of its own, and it is stylishly staged by Josh Hecht. My regret is that while Jorgensen is wonderfully realised by lip-synch artist Bradford Louryk, it does play to the ignorance and prejudice that exists even now to have a she played by a he."

- Lyn Gardner