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M. Butterfly
By David Henry Hwang
Direction & Movement by P. Marston Sullivan
At BoHo Theatre @ Heartland Studio
7016 N. Glenwood
Chicago, IL
Call 773-791-2393, tickets $20
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 2 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 20 minutes with intermission
Through April 20, 2008
Powerful cultural clash of East and West fuels M. Butterfly
BoHo Theatre uses their small studio space at Heartland to mount terrific, in-your-face theatre. Their latest, David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, is gem of a drama. It is a layered love story that covers themes like East verses West culture, men verses women and fantasy love verses reality. Loosely following Madama Butterfly and an actual French case of a diplomat being convicted of falling in love with a Chinese opera star who was a spy, M. Butterfly is a stunning piece of dramatic theatre.
Rene Gallimard (the intense and truthful Jeremy Young) tells his story of how he ended up turning over French state secrets to Song Lilang (David Rhee in a convincing turn). Over their 20 year affair, in both China and France, Rene convinced himself of his delusions that Song was his seductive and elusive ‘butterfly.’ Hwang weaves the motif of Puccini’s opera with the factual based French scandal. We see how a nerdy minor diplomat falls for the illusion of a ‘perfect’ woman when he meets Song—dressed in traditional dress. We see the allure of the Eastern myth as it crashes with Rene’s Western attitudes.
M. Butterfly is a strikingly powerful look at how one’s passion and desperate search for love can lead to flight of fantasy allowing that person to only see and believe what he wants instead of reality. Delusion makes it easy for deception to occur especially in the hands of an actor who is adapt at playing a woman. The role of men and women and the difference of Eastern and Western perceptions fuels Rene’s delusion.
Jeremy Young gave an honest and empathetic performance as Gallimard. David Rhee was marvelous as Song. He deftly moved like a women with enough effeminate movement to be believable in a most difficult and demanding role. To be successful, Rhee only has to get us to question: ‘Is Song really a woman?’ Rhee was successful and bravely shows us his true identity late in act two. Just to complicate matters, we see that Song does actually care for Rene or does he?
See this play and you’ll enchanted in the cultural intrigue of 1960-70’s China. Jilted love, deception and delusion are mixed into a terrific play. BoHo lead characters carry the show.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 14, 2008
Jeff Recommended
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