Review: 'M. Butterfly' Revival Is Contemporary, Challenging, and Chilly

David Henry Hwang's 1988 blockbuster, Tony-winning play could not be more timely.

It's about a man whose perfect woman is submissive, modest, endlessly supportive and completely captivated by him. When he finds her — or so he thinks — he is enthralled and betrays his wife. But this ideal woman is an illusion.

The "is-she-or-isn't-she" question was what gut-punched audiences in the first go-round thirty years ago. That's less interesting now in our society of gender-ambiguous models and openly transgender citizens. The character Song Liling could be male or female or a bit of both; to a contemporary audience, identifying the exact gender of someone is less of an issue.

What's compelling is how French diplomat Rene Gallimard's own sexual insecurities (sexually confident women terrify him) lead him to cling to an ideal of womanhood that results in him acting in distasteful and sometimes aggressive ways. He doesn't see women as people, but as images in a magazine that are displayed for his own pleasure. Gallimard is no Harvey Weinstein, but you could see how a man like him, with a little more confidence, could easily turn into someone like Weinstein.

"M. Butterfly" is based on a true story of a diplomat charged with espionage. Hwang uses this story to sharply criticize white Westerners who view Asian peoples as submissive, in the bedroom and in wartime. In this revision of the original, Hwang adds more detail drawn from the actual case, including specific sexual behavior.

He's aided in this by Julie Taymor, who's a director of ideas and not emotions. She keeps the play focused on the tragedy of the concept of discrimination, instead of the pain and humanity of the characters. Not surprisingly, she creates some incredible visual images. Gallimard tells the story of his love for Liling from prison. His cell is made up of flats that turn into propaganda posters and stage scrims and it's as if you are watching his mind break apart and then try to reconcile itself with both his memories and the truth he now knows. There are gorgeous Chinese opera dance sequences and terrifying scenes of Communist rallies.

But where Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" opera is all emotion and tragic lovers, this production is the opposite; at times, it is almost a clinical depiction of how a seemingly-rational man could get things so wrong. This, despite exquisitely vulnerable performances from Clive Owen as Gallimard and Jin Ha as Liling. They take two unlikable characters and break them open, so that we can see their humanity. If only this production were as focused on feelings, instead of on facts. 

M. Butterfly

By David Henry Hwang; directed by Julie Taymor

At the Cort Theater through Feb. 25, 2018.