The Victoria and Albert museum is one of the best museums I have ever been to. I know, I have said that about every museum we have gone to, but they just keep getting better! Our assignment for this post was to find an object in the museum and relate it to a play we have seen. I knew exactly what I was going to write about the minute I saw this tiara.
It was designed in France by Rene-Jules Lalique around 1903 and is made from horn, cast glass, and enameled gold and fire opals. The tiara itself is not particularly dainty. It is a commanding piece with a strength found within it that I had to write about My Fair Lady. Cass and I saw My Fair Lady recently and absolutely loved it. It is a story about a woman who is taken from the streets and transformed into a refined woman of society. Eliza Doolittle is a cockney street girl who has a particular wit about her and is a fearsome thing to behold. She is taught to speak “correctly” by phonetics professor Henry Higgins. Higgins spends the entire musical critiquing Eliza and telling her she will never make it. Eliza eventually becomes just the woman Higgins dreamed of. She is cunning, bright, elegant, and a perfect vision of society. Higgins realizes too late he is in love with her. In the play Cass and I saw, Eliza leaves without Higgins at the end, contrary to the original ending of the musical. This was a powerful move and such a refreshing take on the complicated relationship between the two. Eliza leaving showed that she had outgrown Higgins. He had never treated her right and the changed ending didn’t feed into the toxic idea that she should still love him through it all. That is why I believe this tiara is perfect for Eliza. She is a strong and beautiful woman who is full of sharp edges and unexpected curves, much like this piece. It is a tiara fit for an independent woman who has her head on straight. It is perfect for our Eliza.
Theatre in London U of A 