Northern Stage, a regional non-profit theater in White River Junction, recently began its run of David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," offering a different type of dramatic offering than Dartmouth's student productions. The play, which premiered on Feb. 15, will run until Mar. 4.
Drawing its inspiration from Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly," the play tells the story of Rene Gallimard, a former diplomat who is sent to prison after being convicted of treason. Told mostly through flashbacks from his cell, Gallimard, played by Drew Taylor, reminisces about his time spent as a French civil servant in China during the Vietnam War. A tale of love and betrayal, the play begins when Gallimard meets the headstrong and beautiful actress Song Liling, played by Devin Ilaw, with whom he is immediately captivated. Their romance, however, is complicated when Gallimard reveals state secrets to Liling, who is actually a spy for the Chinese government. In the end, however, it is her secret that will drive him to the breaking point.
"M. Butterfly" was inspired by the true story of French diplomat Bernard Bouriscot, who caused a scandal when his involvement with a Chinese opera star was made public. Hwang was intrigued by the story but intentionally avoided looking exclusively at the opera because he wanted to make his own play based on the original story, according to the production's program notes.
Northern Stage gets virtually all of its performers from New York City, including Taylor, Doherty said.
"M. Butterfly" marks Taylor's third production with Northern Stage, and he previously performed in the company's productions of "The History Boys" and "Take Two," Taylor said.
Although Taylor lives and mainly works in New York, he said the quality and feel of Northern Stage is such that he doesn't mind coming to the Upper Valley for a few weeks.
"Even though New York is always appealing, it's always nice to stay home and work at home," Taylor said. "When the right play presents itself with good people representing quality, the actor will always go to that."
The play involves one nude scene, but Doherty intended for the nudity to be natural and as necessary to the story line as possible.
"It's not gratuitous nudity by any stretch of the imagination," Doherty said. "If the nudity isn't essential to the story, then I'm not really interested in presenting nudity for nudity's sake."
In keeping with the Northern Stage's space restraints, as the stage is about the size of Bentley theater, the set design was minimalistic. A pair of Chinese looking doors are the main set piece, with an elevated stage on which most of the action took place. The props were taken in and out by two kuroko, Shu-nan Chu and Michael Guess, stagehands who are dressed in all black and interact with the play. Despite the play's Chinese setting, kuroko are actually a staple of Japanese theater.
As the two leads, Taylor and Devin Ilaw, who plays Liling, were magnificent. Both played off each other extremely well. Taylor's lengthy soliloquies and monologues were astounding, and Ilaw played his character, who is actually a man, extremely convincingly.
Also of note was Sung Yun Cho who, despite playing multiple characters in the production, shone in her role as Comrade Chin, Liling's immediate superior. She served as the play's main comic relief and was reminiscent of a female Kim Jong-il in her dress, demeanor and elocution.
Since Gallimard has gone mad by the time the play begins, characters frequently come and go, and the play features frequent time jumps. There is even a brief aside as he walks us through Puccini's original opera "Madame Butterfly." Doherty masterfully directs these scenes to be confusing and unpredictable not too unlike the mind of a madman which adds a new dimension to a play using actors in multiple roles.
One glaring flaw with the production lay with the fact that none of the characters, except for Ilaw, spoke with an accent. Gallimard, for instance, did not use a French accent, asking audience members to suspend their disbelief both in his national origins as well as in the gender of his love interest. Regardless, "M. Butterfly" was a refreshing alternative to the theater offerings at Dartmouth, and students with access to a car should make the trip to Northern Stage.
