Daily Blog
Friday, 27 November 2009 07:11
Written by Urbanatomy
There are two nights and a Saturday matinee left to run on Zuloo Productions M. Butterfly. Inspired by the true story of French diplomat Bernard Boursicot’s love affair with Shi Pei Pu, a Chinese opera singer and spy, whom he claimed for twenty years he believed to be a woman, Henry David Hwang’s powerful play challenges concepts of Orientalism and what he calls “the western rape mentality towards the East,” using a parallel with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly to probe sexual myths, cultural and gender divides, politics, sexual politics the male ego and ultimately the lies we tell ourselves about other people in order to tell ourselves lies about ourselves.
Mark Richard Edwards takes on the challenging of lead role of Rene Gallimard, capturing the humor and sympathy with which this flawed figure is treated in the script, while the cross-dressing Coco Zhao makes for a convincing Song Liling, the multi-dimensional femme fatale, as it were. Supported by a highly competent cast and some beautiful music, while the play works with an extreme set of circumstances, it still touches upon experiences, notions and prejudices everybody sitting in an audience in modern-era China will associate with on a certain level. In a city suffering from a serious dearth of theater, director Daniel Roy Connelly’s is a brave production of a fascinating play. Tickets are still available for the three remaining shows. Highly recommended.
When: Fri & Sat 7:30pm, Sat 3:00pm
Where: The Ke Center for Contemporary Art, 613-B Kaixuan Lu, Changning District
Price: 200RMB at door (reservation recommended), 170RMB Pre-sale, 150RMB for group of 10 or more people
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