M.+Butterfly

=**__M. Butterfly__**= =Table of Contents= M. Butterfly 1. Introduction: 2. Characters: 3. Plot: 4.David Henry Hwang 5. Origin of M. Butterfly 6. Themes: 7. Performance History: 8. Film: 9. References:
 * [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/c.gif width="16" height="16"]]

**__1. Introduction:__** //M.Butterfly//, a tragic play by David Henry Hwang, is the story of the two main characters, Frenchman Rene Gallimard and Chinese opera diva Song Liling, and the deception that occurs between them that destroys their relationship. Song, a Chinese man who is in actuality a spy for the Chinese communist government, and disguises himself as a woman. We watch Gallimard fall in love with the fantasy of the ideal eastern woman, as well as his western dominant control over whom he believes to be a weak submissive. Gallimard learns that he has been deceived by song throughout their twenty year relationship, being sent to prison for committing espionage against the French government. Within //M. Butterfly//, there is a secondary story line from the opera //Madame Butterfly//. Gallimard first falls for Song when he views the opera //Madame Butterfly// with Song playing the role of the butterfly, not realizing that he depicts the perfect image of Pinkerton. This play is filled with much deception, love, and trickery. Hwang explores the consequences of espionage, deceiving one’s own identity, and the white western view of being dominant over the eastern weak female. Similar story lines are found in the opera //Madame Butterfly// by Giacomo Puccini, as well as a real life spy incident between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei-pu.


 * __2. Characters:__**
 * Rene Gallimard/Pinkerton**-French diplomat imprisoned for espionage
 * Song Liling/ Cio-Cio-San (butterfly)**-Chinese opera diva camouflaged as a woman for job as Chinese government spy
 * Marc/Sarpless**-old friend of Gallimard’s
 * Helga**-Gallimard’s wife
 * M. Toulon**- French ambassador of China
 * Comrade Chin/Suzuki**- Chinese Communist Party official
 * J****udge** ||  ||   ||

Song (Francis Jue) & Gallimard (Mark Capri) in Robert Kelley's 2006 production of //M. Butterfly//

__3. Plot:__

 * 2.1 __Act 1__:** **2.1.1 Scene 1:** Gallimard describes his prison cell to the audience and compares himself to a “celebrity” and not an ordinary prisoner.
 * 2.1.2 Scene 2:** Conversation between two men and one woman. They discuss Gallimard’s crime and his relationship with another man who took on the identity of a woman. They discuss if Gallimard was aware of Song’s sex throughout their relationship. Gallimard observes entire conversation from his cell.
 * 2.1.3 Scene 3:** Gallimard’s cell.Gallimard and his friend Marc reenact a scene from //Madame Butterfly//. The scene has a white man in control of a the relationship, while the oriental woman is obedient and weak.
 * 2.1.4 Scene 4:** Flashback from Gallimard suggests that Gallimard is not confident with girls or relationships. Gallimard reveals to the audience that he has been convicted of treason by the French government.
 * 2.1.5 Scene 5:** storyline of //Madame Butterfly// told by Gallimard to the audience .Gallimard describes Butterfly and how Pinkerton. Gallimard recalls the first time that he sees “her”, or song singing the death scene of //Madame Butterfly.//“We, who are not handsome, nor brave, nor powerful, yet somehow believe, like Pinkerton, that we deserve a Butterfly (Hwang 10).[2]
 * 2.1.6 Scene 6:** The ending of //Madame Butterfly// is told to audience. Song and Gallimard speak of Song’s performance and discuss the East and West perspectives of //Madame Butterfly.// Song: “It’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive Oriental woman and the cruel white man.”(Hwang 17).
 * 2.1.7 Scene 7:** Gallimard and his wife Helga discuss the East and West culture and tradition, in addition to his views of //Madame Butterfly.//
 * 2.1.8 Scene 8:** Chinese opera house. Song addresses Gallimard as “white man” and “adventurous imperialist”. Western education is addressed. Song speaks of delicate oriental women having fascination for Caucasian men.
 * 2.1.9 Scene 9:** Flashback of Gallimard’s bedroom 1960. Gallimard lies to Helga about where he has been when he was really with Song. Song asks of Gallimard’s true interest in the opera. Song tells Gallimard to come to a play to see her as //Drunken Beauty.//
 * 2.1.10 Scene 10:** Song’s apartment 1960. Gallimard and Song discuss about her father, and their views of the East and the West. Song suggests to Gallimard to leave her apartment, identifies herself as “modest”, and that she feels “not herself”.
 * 2.1.11 Scene 11:**Gallimard starts to ignore Song to feel the “power of a man”. Gallimard speaks of his first sexual encounter where he was not in control. Gallimard begins to receive letters from Song. Song sends Gallimard three different letters. The final letter asks what Gallimard wants because Song has already “given her shame” for him. Gallimard feels remorse but feels dominant”. “I had finally gained power over a beautiful woman, only to abuse it cruelly”(pg 36)[2]
 * 2.1.12 Scene 12:** Ambassador Toulon’s residence. Toulon and Gallimard discuss Toulon’s request for Gallimard to become vice-consul.
 * 2.1.13 Scene 13:** Song is angry with Gallimard because he has shown up eight weeks after Song has last spoken to him. Gallimard asks Song if she is his “butterfly”. Gallimard and Song kiss. Song: “Please… it all frightens me. I’m a modest Chinese girl” (Hwang 40).


 * 2.2 __Act 2__:** **2.2.1 Scene 1:** Gallimard’s cell. Gallimard suggests that in his life he has been Pinkerton from //Madame Butterfly.//
 * 2.2.2 Scene 2:** Song and Gallimard speak of Chinese men in society. Song asks for Gallimard’s work, and “what is going on in Vietnam”.
 * 2.2.3 Scene 3:** French embassy. Toulon and Gallimard speak of secret of American’s plan of bombing Vietnam, and how the Chinese would react. They speak of Gallimard’s “mistress. “Orientals will always submit to a greater force”(Hwang 46).
 * 2.2.4 Scene 4:** Comrade Chin wants Song to find out when the American’s plan on bombing Vietnam from Gallimard. Chin warns song that homosexuality in China is illegal.
 * 2.2.5 Scene 5:** Beijing. Gallimard describes how Song pleasures him and listens to him. Helga has went to the doctor to find out why she cannot get pregnant. Gallimard asks if Song wants to have his baby.
 * 2.2.6 Scene 6:**Party at Austrian embassy 1963. Gallimard has an affair with a young student named Renee for several months which he hides from Song. Song is insulted by Gallimard’s request to see her naked because he will not accept her “shame”. “I thought you understood my modesty. So you want me to-what-strip? Like a big cowboy girl?”(Hwang 59).[2]
 * 2.2.7 Scene 7:** Song tells Chin that she needs a baby. Gallimard and Song speak of Gallimard being in prison.
 * 2.2.8 Scene 8:** Gallimard offers to leave his wife Helga for Song, but Song feels too “ashamed” to marry him. Gallimard leaves Song for several months. Song comes in carrying a baby. Gallimard wants the baby to raised in the west, but song is against it.
 * 2.2.9 Scene 9:** Gallimard is sent home to France because his predictions about the orient were wrong. Song admits to having sex with Gallimard to Chin. Song tells Chin that he wants to “serve the people”.
 * 2.2.10 Scene 10:** Song tells Chin to let him go back to France to gain extra information from Gallimard.
 * 2.2.11 Scene 11:**. Gallimard requests to divorce Helga, and tells her of his mistress, but she is not surprised. Song returns to Gallimard, but he thinks that he is dreaming. song says that Gallimard “knows too much”. Song addresses the audience of a costume change. “My life in the West has been such a disappointment”(Hwang 76).[2]


 * 2.3 __Act 3__:** **2.3.1 Scene 1:**15 years later. Court room. Judge asks song if Gallimard was aware that he gave away classified information, or if Gallimard knew Song was a man. Song seems uncertain and has no real answers. Song believes that Gallimard was easy to trick because he was Gallimard’s “fantasy”. “because when he finally met his fantasy woman, he wanted more than anything to believe that she was, in fact, a woman”(Hwang 83).[2]
 * 2.3.2 Scene 2:** Song reveals to Gallimard that his is a man. Gallimard exclaims that he knew his “happiness was temporary” and that “love is deception”. Gallimard laughs that he “wasted” his time on a man, and that his “Butterfly” still exists, and that he will keep searching. “I mean, you never did have much of a sense of humor, did you? I just think its ridiculously funny that I’ve wasted so much time on just a man!”(Hwang 88).
 * 2.3.3 Scene 3:** Gallimard’s cell. Gallimard commits suicide mirroring Butterfly’s suicide in //Madame Butterfly.// Gallimard want to return to Buttefly, but realizes that the search is over.

David Henry Hwang was born on August 11th, 1957 in Los Angeles, California. Hwang is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He attended Yale school of Drama, and got his bachelor’s degree from Standford University. He was chosen by President Clinton to be on the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities.According to //Opera News//, Hwang is America’s most-produced living opera librettist. This Chinese American playwright, described by the //New York Times// as "a true original" and by //TIME// magazine as "the first important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller," is best known as the author of //M. Butterfly.// That enduring 1988 work, which won aTony Award, Drama Desk Award, John Gassner Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award, was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. To date, //M. Butterfly//has been staged in over four dozen countries and was the basis for a major motion picture.[1] "American Theatre Wing - Biography - David Henry Hwang." //The Dance and the Railroad (1981)// //Family Devotions (1981)// //The House of Sleeping Beauties (1983)// //The Sound of a Voice (1983)// //As the Crow Flies (1986)// //Rich Relations (1986)// //Bondage (1992)// //Face Value (1993)// //Trying to Find Chinatown (1996)// //Bang Kok (1996)// //Golden Child (1996)// //Peer Gynt (1998)// //Merchandising (1999)// //Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet (2001)// //Tibet Through the Red Box (2004)// //The Great Helmsman (2007)// //Yellow Face (2007)//
 * __4.David Henry Hwang__**
 * Hwang’s** **Other plays:** //FOB (1980)[[image:13237150.jpg width="184" height="211" align="right"]]//

//A Very DNA Reunion (2010)// //Chinglish (2011)//

In //M. Butterfly//, Hwang has the characters in //M. Butterfly// mirror the characters in //Madame Butterfly.//Rene Gallimard represent Pinkerton, and Song represent Cio-cio San.|| //Madame Butterfly (opera)//
 * __5. Origin of //M. Butterfly//__**
 * //Madame Butterfly//** //M. Butterfly// is a post-modern implication of theme from //Madame Butterfly,// by Giacomo Puccini. //Madama Butterfly,//written in 1904 in the genre of opera in which a U.S. Navy Lieutenant western white man named Colonel Pinkerton misleads a Japanese geisha, Cio-cio San. Pinkerton gets married to Cio-cio San, yet he does not realize the love that Cio-cio San has for him. Pinkerton has the intention to marry an American woman. Cio-cio San is enthusiastic of her marriage to Pinkerton, and after the ceremony Pinkerton and Cio-cio San sing of their love. After three years has passed since Pinkerton and Cio-cio San’s marriage, Cio-cio San waits for Pinkerton’s ship to return, and believes that her husband has not deserted her. Sharpless, Pinkerton’s friend, attempts to tell Cio-cio San that Pinkerton is not returning, yet Cio-cio San expresses that Pinkerton will return if he knows of their child. Cio-cio San indicates that she rather die than live without Pinkerton. Pinkerton returns to Japan with his new American wife. Pinkerton feels remorse and runs off because of his guilt. Cio-cio San says that she will give up her child if Pinkerton will return. Cio-cio San “rather die with honor than disgrace”, and commits suicide. The opera ends with Pinkerton calling out Cio-cio San’s name.[9]



Pinkerton (James Valenti) & Cio-cio San (Shu-Ying Li) in George Manaham's 2008 production of //Madame Butterfly// Song (Telly Leung) & Gallimard (Christopher Innvar) in Philadelphia theater company production's 2008 production of //M. Butterfly// ||
 * [[image:mbutter width="393" height="192"]]

Bernard Boursicot (left) & Shi-Pei-pu (right) in Boursicot's trial for espionage
 * Spy Incident: Bernard Boursicot & Shi-Pei-pu** Hwang based parts of //M. Butterfly// on a “real-life spy inident from 1986 involving Bernard Boursicot, an accountant in the French embassy in Beijing, who became lovers with Shi-Pei-pu, a Chinese opera singer. In the course of Boursicot’s trial for espionage, Shi was, in fact, exposed as a //he;// Boursicot maintained that he had never seen his lover naked, believing, according to Hwang, that her modesty was “a Chinese custom”. //Joyce Wadler’s The True Story of M. Butterfly; The Spy Who Fell in Love With a Shadow// //August 15th, 1993.//

__6. Themes:__
media type="youtube" key="fVC8EYd_Z_g" width="255" height="173" In Edward Said’s theory Orientalism, Said expresses the idea that the west has a preconceived notion of the east. The East, or “the orient: is a European invention that the west, or “the oxidant” has created at as a fantasy. The stereotype that the West forms of the East is through a lens that distorts the actual reality of the East. The West creates a framework to understand the East. The West believes that they are dominant, while the East is a place which is strange, unfamiliar, and feminine in their eyes. The west believes that they are superior in their ways in comparison to the east. The West has a systematic underlying prejudice of the East. The West is the colonizer, and they are colonizing the East.
 * Orientalism** (Eastern and Western stereotypes)


 * There are three steps in orientalism:**
 * Step 1**-The West “others” the East by creating a fantasy of the East.
 * Step 2**-The West objectifies the East in an academic study of the East. The West studies the epistemology, or the “knowledge of the knowledge” of the East.
 * Step 3**-“I am not what you are”. In other words, the West believes that the East can never be what they are.

The theory of orientalism is portrayed through M. Butterfly because Rene Gallimard represents the West, and he believes that he is dominant and in control of the East. The East is represented by Song because she is weak, submissive, and the ideal feminine fantasy for Gallimard. Although Gallimard believes that he is in control of Song, in actuality Song is deceiving Gallimard proving that the East is not what the West assumes they are. “Modern Orientalism embodies a systematic discipline of accumulation. Far from this being exclusively an intellectual or theoretical feature, it made Orientalism tend fatally towards the systematic accumulation of human beings and territories. To reconstruct a dead or lost Oriental language meant ultimately to reconstruct a dead or neglected Orient; it also meant that reconstructive precision, science, even imagination could prepare the way for what armies, administrators, and bureaucracies would later do on the ground.” -Edward Said


 * Love:** Song, as a woman, plays of that she is in love with Gallimard. Gallimard is in love with Song, whom he believes to be a woman. Song, as a man, “pretends” to be in love with Gallimard as a “role” for her job as a secret spy. Is Song in love with Gallimard, even though he is a man, or is he truly playing a role? Is Gallimard truly surprised when he finds out that Song is a man, or is he still in love with the idea of being dominant in the relationship?
 * Deception:** Song deceives Gallimard by making him believe that she is an innocent, submissive, oriental woman when in actuality Song is really a man who is a secret spy for the Chinese communist government. Song deceives Gallimard into revealing top secret information in order to benefit the Chinese government, and having Gallimard charged with espionage.

__7. Performance History:__
Februray 10th, 1988: National Theatre in Washinton, D.C by director John Dexter and presented by Stuart Ostrow and David Geffen. Opened on Broadway March 20th, 1988 at Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
 * Cast:** **Kurogo-** Alec Mapa, Chris Odo, Jamie H.J. Guan
 * Rene Gallimard-**John Lithgow
 * Song Liling-**B.D. Wong
 * Marc/Man #2/Consul Sharpless-**John Getz
 * Renee/Woman at Party/Girl in Margizine-**Lindsay Frost
 * Comrade Chin/Suzuki/Shu Fang-**Lori Tan Chinn
 * Helga-**Rose Gregorio
 * M.Toulon/Man #1/Judge-**George N. Martin[2]

Awards:*
 * 1988 Clarence Derwent Awards for Most Promising Male (B.D. Wong)
 * 1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
 * 1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (B.D.Wong)
 * 1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (John Dexter)
 * 1988 Tony Award for Best Play
 * 1988 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play ( B.D. Wong)
 * 1988 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (John Dexter)
 * 1988 John Gassner Award
 * 1988 Outer Critics Circle Award

**__8. Film:__**
media type="youtube" key="g3536iGvPV0" width="259" height="177" align="right"

October 1st 1993 **Genre:** Drama/Romance Jeremy Irons-**Rene Gallimard** John Lone-**Song** Ian Richardson-**Toulon** Shizuko Hoshi-**Comrade Chin**
 * Director:** David Cronenberg
 * Writer:** David Henry Hwang (screenplay)
 * Cast:**
 * Filming locations:** Budapest, hungary. Great wall of China, China. Paris, France. Toronoto, Ontario, Canada.[4]

Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) in David Cronenberg's 1993 production of //M. Butterfly//

Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) & Song (John Lone) in David Cronenberg's 1993 production of //M.Butterfly//

__9. References:__
[1]"American Theatre Wing - Biography - David Henry Hwang." //American Theatre Wing - Biography - David Henry Hwang//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

[2]Hwang, David Henry. M.Butterfly. New York, NY: New American Library, 1989. Print.

[3]"M. Butterfly." //All Content//. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2013. <[]>.

[4]“M. Butterfly.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2013.

[5]"M Butterfly Trailer." //YouTube//. YouTube, 17 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

[6]"Pulling the Wings off M. Butterfly: Dramatic Irony, Performance and the Third Space in Hwang's Dramatic Script and Film Adaptation." //Inkwell//. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2013. <[]>. []

[7]Said, Edward W. //Orientalism//. New York: Vintage, 1979. Print.

[8]Sulit, Marie-Therese C. “The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature. “M 2 (2009): 671-73. Print

[9]"Synopsis." //Of Madama Butterfly//. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

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