Madame Butterfly
Hello PAO!!! (that's my handsome boyfriend wth body and brains to match!) *mwah*
Last night, Pao and I watched a repertory play... David Henry Hwang's Madame Butterfly. It's an amazing story and I urge everyone to watch it... (actually just those who are open-minded) It's showing at onstage in greenbelt. It's a wee bit confusing at first but you'll start to get it by the middle of the first half. The ending is simply red!
Hands down to the actors... they not only have the skill (a requirement) but they have guts! I only wish I could be half as good as they are. They could easily hold you at the edge of your seat and captivate you with their words.
The play starts by introducing the main character and narrator, Rene Gallimard. The setting is a stuffy, musty, tiny cell in France... From there he backtracks to a few years back (approximately 20 years or so) to tell the tale of how he ended up in his present predicament.
He starts by telling the audience that he is a rank and file diplomat who works in the French embassy in China... as an employee, he is often invited in the ambassador's house to socialize and do whatever it is the French do. He often inserts quips about little things he remembered when he was in college and so on... (he mentions mark who happens to be a college friend - this guy keeps popping in the entire pay!) He basically says that he wasn't a very handsome man... that during his college gays, most girls in France would just turn up their noses at him. Then he gets married to the daughter of some other ambassador. Blah... blah... blah... Then he inserts the story of Madame Butterfly (Puccini's version) ... A Chinese girl who married a foreigner - American, but he leaves her and comes back after three years with an American wife and demanding the child that she bore for him... no longer tolerating the pain... she kills herself.
This is where the juicy part begins... At one of the parties, Gallimard watches the play of Puccini's Madame Buttterfly and meets the frail, beautiful, Chinese person (Song) who portrays the role of Madame Butterfly. They talk for awhile... he is enthralled and captivated by her words and beauty.... This is where he first gets a taste of the power that a man has over a woman (we must remember that he was snubbed by the opposite sex when he was still in France)
You guessed it! Song becomes Gallimards "butterfly"... she is his lover, confidante and the "mother" of his child. Then the war happens and Gallimard is sent back to France... Song follows him there. (She is actually sent by the Chinese government because she's their spy) She's been squeezing little bits of info from him ever since the first day they meet... with him not knowing!
In France, Gallimard takes her in (even though it was hard times for him) and gives her more info... this time he knows that he's giving her top secret papers but he never asks Song what she does with it. By this time you all get it that he is truly in love with her. There's a twist... Gallimard's fantasy of an oriental woman is sooo buried deep within his mind that he does not allow himself to see what is real... Gallimard thinks that all Orientals are submissive to a foreign men, regardless of sex, therefore he thinks that all Orientals are effeminate.
He lives in his fantasy world with his fantasy oriental mistress... He does not want to bring himself to see what is real, that his mistress is not a she... but a HE!
Gallimard is captured, the Court makes Song a witness and he tells all.
Song is actually a man (transvestite to be politically correct) working for the Chinese Government and was assigned to go undercover, tempt Gallimard, become his mistress and get info on the American and French movements. (The actor who is Song in the play actually strips and shows himself to the audience... of course his back was to us - all I could see was his bare-naked ass... Shucks!) Totally amazing, right? It doesn't end here!
The courts finds Rene Gallimard guilty of treason. Thus, bringing us to the present time. He is shamed and hurt by the cruelty of his butterfly...
In the end he cannot bear the pain... Gallimard kills himself in his cell.
What a great play! It is the ultimate humiliation for Gallimard... his butterfly treats him the same way and he now becomes the butterfly... he becomes the very thing that he has created in Song.
Phew!!! I'm tired! I hope you had the patience to read until this part. (hmmm... I guess you do, since you've reached this far =p) That's basically the story but it doesn't come close to what I saw on stage.
Last night, Pao and I watched a repertory play... David Henry Hwang's Madame Butterfly. It's an amazing story and I urge everyone to watch it... (actually just those who are open-minded) It's showing at onstage in greenbelt. It's a wee bit confusing at first but you'll start to get it by the middle of the first half. The ending is simply red!
Hands down to the actors... they not only have the skill (a requirement) but they have guts! I only wish I could be half as good as they are. They could easily hold you at the edge of your seat and captivate you with their words.
The play starts by introducing the main character and narrator, Rene Gallimard. The setting is a stuffy, musty, tiny cell in France... From there he backtracks to a few years back (approximately 20 years or so) to tell the tale of how he ended up in his present predicament.
He starts by telling the audience that he is a rank and file diplomat who works in the French embassy in China... as an employee, he is often invited in the ambassador's house to socialize and do whatever it is the French do. He often inserts quips about little things he remembered when he was in college and so on... (he mentions mark who happens to be a college friend - this guy keeps popping in the entire pay!) He basically says that he wasn't a very handsome man... that during his college gays, most girls in France would just turn up their noses at him. Then he gets married to the daughter of some other ambassador. Blah... blah... blah... Then he inserts the story of Madame Butterfly (Puccini's version) ... A Chinese girl who married a foreigner - American, but he leaves her and comes back after three years with an American wife and demanding the child that she bore for him... no longer tolerating the pain... she kills herself.
This is where the juicy part begins... At one of the parties, Gallimard watches the play of Puccini's Madame Buttterfly and meets the frail, beautiful, Chinese person (Song) who portrays the role of Madame Butterfly. They talk for awhile... he is enthralled and captivated by her words and beauty.... This is where he first gets a taste of the power that a man has over a woman (we must remember that he was snubbed by the opposite sex when he was still in France)
You guessed it! Song becomes Gallimards "butterfly"... she is his lover, confidante and the "mother" of his child. Then the war happens and Gallimard is sent back to France... Song follows him there. (She is actually sent by the Chinese government because she's their spy) She's been squeezing little bits of info from him ever since the first day they meet... with him not knowing!
In France, Gallimard takes her in (even though it was hard times for him) and gives her more info... this time he knows that he's giving her top secret papers but he never asks Song what she does with it. By this time you all get it that he is truly in love with her. There's a twist... Gallimard's fantasy of an oriental woman is sooo buried deep within his mind that he does not allow himself to see what is real... Gallimard thinks that all Orientals are submissive to a foreign men, regardless of sex, therefore he thinks that all Orientals are effeminate.
He lives in his fantasy world with his fantasy oriental mistress... He does not want to bring himself to see what is real, that his mistress is not a she... but a HE!
Gallimard is captured, the Court makes Song a witness and he tells all.
Song is actually a man (transvestite to be politically correct) working for the Chinese Government and was assigned to go undercover, tempt Gallimard, become his mistress and get info on the American and French movements. (The actor who is Song in the play actually strips and shows himself to the audience... of course his back was to us - all I could see was his bare-naked ass... Shucks!) Totally amazing, right? It doesn't end here!
The courts finds Rene Gallimard guilty of treason. Thus, bringing us to the present time. He is shamed and hurt by the cruelty of his butterfly...
In the end he cannot bear the pain... Gallimard kills himself in his cell.
What a great play! It is the ultimate humiliation for Gallimard... his butterfly treats him the same way and he now becomes the butterfly... he becomes the very thing that he has created in Song.
Phew!!! I'm tired! I hope you had the patience to read until this part. (hmmm... I guess you do, since you've reached this far =p) That's basically the story but it doesn't come close to what I saw on stage.
posted by Anma @ 11:37 AM
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