Affecting Expression

Affecting Expression unearths queer history with humor, heart, and theatricality. Over a century and a half before same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States, before there were official words to describe their relationship, we had Charlotte and Matilda. It’s 1852, and beloved crossdressing Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman is retiring from the stage to move to Rome with her long-term partner, reserved writer Matilda Hays. Joining their party is an eccentric young sculptor named Harriet Hosmer. As they navigate their intersecting artistic paths and the complexities of their relationships, a tension builds that they may be unable to recover from. Affecting Expression is a fantastical tragicomedy about figures of queer history that explores the social and emotional reality of these women and the thin line between finding and losing oneself in art.

The run time is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Trigger warnings include strong language and sexual content.