Rating: 
Summary: Deliciously irreverent & subversive
Review: Since some broad-minded fellow in the bible first referred to a woman as the "weaker vessel", and most likely before that, women have been fighting the stigma of the physically and mentally weak being, only capable of caring for herself to a certain extent. Even in this day and time, with self-proclaimed sensitive males coming out of the woodwork, quiet as kept, this is still the ideal. Passivity is thought of as a female trait, and an admirable one-though it has also become popular to herald the new dawn of strong, intelligent women. Only don't be too strong or intelligent. A heady mixture of non-threatening intelligence and feminine strength is probably best.Hwang's M. BUTTERFLY skewers these concepts, attacking traditional Western views of Asian women, whom, perhaps even more than their sisters elsewhere, have the "weaker vessel", the delicate "lotus blossom" tattooed on their backsides. The character Gallimard is pulled into M. Butterfly's trap because he is enthralled with the modern western education and values she has, which he considers to be in conflict with her "Oriental" soul. It's exactly this piquant combination of an innocence and sexual prowess, which he considers culturally entrenched, that has him so in love with her. Asian girls in these types of stories are always slight, shy and beautiful, but no matter, they will eventually give in to the White Alpha Male, no matter WHAT he looks like. They are also loyal until the death, serving the White Alpha Male until their code of honor calls for suicide or some such nonsense, freeing White Alpha Male to marry a white woman, as the story wants us to believe he ought to have done in the first place. This thought is so entrenched in society, that we don't think twice when Puccini's Butterfly falls for some pencil pushing bureaucrat, renouncing offers from rich, handsome young men of her own country, and her demise at the end is celebrated. But Hwang WANTS us to start thinking, start realizing what our preconceptions about others say about US. Does anyone think that the real life Butterfly that this play is based on was as beautiful as her enamored bureaucrat thought? Or did he simply see what he wanted to see? MADAME BUTTERFLY IS A MAN! Gallimard has, and perhaps not consciously, mentally objectified Asian women so much that he is able to project his fantasies and delusions of what an Asian woman should be ON A MAN! Butterfly even STRIPS in front of him, and he sees nothing amiss. The reason the ruse works is, as Butterfly says "only a man knows how woman is supposed to act". Butterfly keys into Gallimard's own preconceptions of Asian female behavior, and uses them against him. Generally, smirking retellings of old stories where a dubious gilding of modern sociological mores is splashed over everything give me a pain. But this time it works, and HOW it works. Pick up M. BUTTERFLY today.
Rating:
Summary: A great production
Review: This audiobook presentation of M Butterfly will give listeners a first class seat to hear one of literature's great stories. M butterfly is much more then a love story; rather it is a multi-themed tale which addresses many issues. West vs East, Fantasy vs reality sexuality, true love and the human condition. John Lithgow and B. D. Wong are great in the leading roles, especially Wong what a transformation! Buy this production and enjoy this mind's eye treat. L.A theatre works did an excellent job in putting it all together and I will not hesitate to buy more of their audio products. Thank goodness Amazon carries a large selection! Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: A great production
Review: This audiobook presentation of M Butterfly will give listeners a first class seat to hear one of literature's great stories. M butterfly is much more then a love story; rather it is a multi-themed tale which addresses many issues. West vs East, Fantasy vs reality sexuality, true love and the human condition. John Lithgow and B. D. Wong are great in the leading roles, especially Wong what a transformation! Buy this production and enjoy this mind's eye treat. L.A theatre works did an excellent job in putting it all together and I will not hesitate to buy more of their audio products. Thank goodness Amazon carries a large selection! Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: Gender, Love, Betray !
Review: This is a pretty interesting play..but I strongly recommend that you should read it first..and if you want you can watch the film..(J.Irons is pretty good). David H.Hwang combines the gender confusion with themes from G. Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" which is briefly about an American man having a relationship with a Chinese woman. Hwang blends this with the facts in which he inspired by a 1986 newspaper story, where a French diplomat who was is trial for espionage had a relationship with a woman which turned out to be a man. This play is a gender complicated drama about clash between Western & Eastern cultures. Moreover, this may also be considered as a love story, which I think is a very sad one. Hwang creates stereotypes, and he makes these stereotypes vice versa. By changing the roles, Rene who is supposed to represent West & Song, East no longer represent those.Song becomes the masculine which is masked by the feminine disguise represents West & Rene who becomes submissive in the play represents East. In this play many of you may find Rene stupid and perverted but he is not. They were in love for a long time. Rene knew that Song was a man, but he is definitely not gay. Rene is in love with the idea that such a perfect woman exists. In reality, there is no perfect woman according to his standards. He is in love with a perfect fantasy. " it is true that only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act." By the word woman I am referring to the ideal woman of which every man dreams and Song fulfills this role so well that Rene does not want to discover that Song is a man, because he has a perfect relationship,and why should he ruin it ? He has the woman of is life, why lose it ? On the other, Song is a spy, an actress! and gay. He uses theater and wears woman dresses( In that time women were excluded from performing in a theater because of culturally constructed constaints.) Beyond this acting, under that disguise, Song gets what he wants. He gets a relationship in which he would never get if he was not an actor. There is so much to say about this play.. I think it is a great love story..I really felt sorry for Rene.. Having found his perfect woman, confronting with the reality, he realizes that his dream will never go on. I wont tell the end..but it made me cry..its a pathetic ending..
Rating:
Summary: The Hour and a Half Dirty Play
Review: This play was great! However, I wouldn't recommend it to younger audiences because it's pretty sexual. I was so intrigued with this piece that I couldn't put it down, and I will definitely read it again. Plus, this play has a pretty shocking ending. The sexual undertones make the play lively and suspenseful. However, the deeper meaning of it is what makes me want to come back to it again. It's a play about who has power, denial, deception, and fantasies. Well worth the read!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Hour and a Half Dirty Play
Review: This play was great! However, I wouldn't recommend it to younger audiences because it's pretty sexual. I was so intrigued with this piece that I couldn't put it down, and I will definitely read it again. Plus, this play has a pretty shocking ending. The sexual undertones make the play lively and suspenseful. However, the deeper meaning of it is what makes me want to come back to it again. It's a play about who has power, denial, deception, and fantasies. Well worth the read!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Trite
Review: Trite but true! The (trite) notion underpinning this play, that people tend not to be too discerning when thinking about foreign places and people (which leads to stereotyping) is amply demonstrated by the confusion over the setting of the play. Let's get this straight: This play M Butterfly is set in CHINA, Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly is set in JAPAN (a very different country) and neither are set in VIETNAM (though the modern musical based on Madama Butterfly, Miss Saigon, is). Now on to the play itself ... The play's premise is that the Western Man (represented by real-life French diplomat Gallimard) is so powerfully taken with the myth of the perfect submissive Asian woman who would love him to death (represented by the Chinese opera singer Song Liling) that he would go to great lengths, even mind-boggling self-delusion, to realise this myth. In doing so, he proves that he, not the Asian woman, is the manipulated one; manipulated by his own prejudices and preconceptions. The myth of the idealised submissive Asian female awaiting her salvation by the love of a big strong western male is deserving enough of explosion. The megaton explosion is handily provided by Song being the ultimate manipulator; a Chinese spy after Gallimard's state secrets, not his love, who also happens to be a man exploiting Gallimard and his fantasy of the devoted Asian woman. Well well. ... That's about it, though. After (it hopes) pulling the rug from under the audiences' feet, the play doesn't replace the rug with any solid flooring. This play relies too much on exposing a stereotype - if in the first place you have never bought into the stereotype of the Asian woman dying to love the white man, it really has very little to say to you. Anyone who has thought through the complex implications of the "Pinkerton syndrome" will find the play rather stale. Admittedly there's something gratifying in having this faintly-offensive stereotype thrown into the faces of a western audience, but this hardly validates the play as a profound voice or an artistic endeavour (and in fact, it's a tad childish). This play isn't very deep; it doesn't improve upon a second reading, nor upon performance. Stripped of its shock value, I find not much left.
Rating:
Summary: Trite
Review: Trite but true! The (trite) notion underpinning this play, that people tend not to be too discerning when thinking about foreign places and people (which leads to stereotyping) is amply demonstrated by the confusion over the setting of the play. Let's get this straight: This play M Butterfly is set in CHINA, Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly is set in JAPAN (a very different country) and neither are set in VIETNAM (though the modern musical based on Madama Butterfly, Miss Saigon, is). Now on to the play itself ... The play's premise is that the Western Man (represented by real-life French diplomat Gallimard) is so powerfully taken with the myth of the perfect submissive Asian woman who would love him to death (represented by the Chinese opera singer Song Liling) that he would go to great lengths, even mind-boggling self-delusion, to realise this myth. In doing so, he proves that he, not the Asian woman, is the manipulated one; manipulated by his own prejudices and preconceptions. The myth of the idealised submissive Asian female awaiting her salvation by the love of a big strong western male is deserving enough of explosion. The megaton explosion is handily provided by Song being the ultimate manipulator; a Chinese spy after Gallimard's state secrets, not his love, who also happens to be a man exploiting Gallimard and his fantasy of the devoted Asian woman. Well well. ... That's about it, though. After (it hopes) pulling the rug from under the audiences' feet, the play doesn't replace the rug with any solid flooring. This play relies too much on exposing a stereotype - if in the first place you have never bought into the stereotype of the Asian woman dying to love the white man, it really has very little to say to you. Anyone who has thought through the complex implications of the "Pinkerton syndrome" will find the play rather stale. Admittedly there's something gratifying in having this faintly-offensive stereotype thrown into the faces of a western audience, but this hardly validates the play as a profound voice or an artistic endeavour (and in fact, it's a tad childish). This play isn't very deep; it doesn't improve upon a second reading, nor upon performance. Stripped of its shock value, I find not much left.
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