Customer Reviews

M. Butterfly.

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
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Reviewers who focus on the inplausibility of the play's premise are missing the forest for the trees. The ridiculousness of Gallimard's situation is the product of his (and through him, the West's) self-absorbed and limited view of the East, evidenced through the overly simplistic dichotomy of East & West. He has been utterly blinded by his preconceptions of gender, culture, and politics. Hwang has written a masterpiece with grace, humor, and wit. Students of literary analysis will find a text rich in archetypes and ritual.

Highly recommended.

M. Butterfly takes place in the mind of Rene Gallimard. While the play begins with him in a French prison, we are taken far away from this prison into the depths of his mind. His fantasies of Song Liling are both reality and illusionary. He will ultimately face the most shocking truth about the "woman" he thought he loved for twenty years. M. Butterfly takes a bold move in rearranging common roles set by our society, whether speaking for the present or from fifty years ago. This play dives deep into the pool of stereotypes and makes every turn imaginable. While the Eastern/Western dichotomy is presented with stereotypes of both sides, roles are soon reversed which gives the dichotomy a whole new meaning. Gallimard, initially portrayed as the Western dominant male, and Song, initially portrayed as the compliant Asian woman, will both eventually reverse their sexual roles although their enthnic identities remain in tact. Gallimard evolves from the controller to the controlled, while Song proves his power and control as his masculinity is revealed. All of this role and sexual confusion causes us to re-examine the stereotypes. Are they socially constructed or are they inherent in the person? You must read and decide for yourself!

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

M. Butterfly takes the well-known, traditional opera Madame Butterfly, and turns it upside down. It turns inside out the stereotype of Asian American women Americans almost take as fact. The common perceptions of male vs. female, East vs. West, powerful vs. powerless, homosexual vs. heterosexual are all overturned in this short play. Just when the reader thinks he or she knows what is going on, Hwang turns everything over once again. An astoundingly well written play... Be prepared for a surprise!

There seem to be more than enough interpretations of the story from other reviewers, so suffice it to say that these CDs are a unique opportunity to own a theatre gem with two superb actors on top form. What a pity this production was not recorded for DVD as the film version is very miscast. Buy this and enjoy!!

Hwang's play, "M.Butterfly" attepts to deconstruct the opera "Madame Butterfly" by breaking the back of the play. He does this by reversing both gender roles and the identifications of power that go along with those roles. First, Hwang represents the Western man, who is stereotypically strong, crass, and powerful, as Rene, a rather effeminate man with homosexual leanings. In doing so, Hwang makes it possible for the sterotypically weak and effiminate Oriental man, played by Song, to dupe and therefore overpower the Western man. One problem Hwang runs into, however, is the fact that Song is presented as effiminate. In fact, for most of the play Song is dressed and acts like a woman. His lines play right into Rene's preconceptions about the East, which both leads to his promotion as well as his eventual destruction and downfall. While Song does appear to win in the end, Rene, in fact rejects him. Thus while Hwang does attempt to deconstruct many of the Western stereotypes about the East, and does, he also perpetuates others. This play examines the overwhelming power of sterotypes as a discourse, through the concepts of gender and with the backdrop of the Vietnam War.

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.

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..

I am very pleased with the purchase and the timely manner in which the book came. It arrived just in time for the beginning of the semester and was in great condition. Also, I appreciated the fact that the book was as described.

I chose this screenplay because I saw the movie and it was so moving and beautiful. I also needed it for my acting class. This was exactly what I needed.