Gay-Themed Plays: M. Butterly

Looking through a list the other day, I was pleasantly reminded of David Henry Hwang's fascinating play based on real life subjects, M. Butterly. Friends took me to see it on Broadway all the way back in 1988 with John Lithgow and B.D. Wong in the cast. I always wondered why any actor would choose to be known by his initials rather than his full name - until I saw the play, that is.

The extraordinary thing is that the play is based on the real life story of a married French civil servant René Gallimard who is posted to Beijing in the early 1960s when his wife has to stay in France. Fascinated by Beijing Opera, he finds himself falling in love with a Chinese Opera singer, Song Liling, playing a role similar to that of Puccini's Madama Butterly. Soon they start a romance that is to last for 20 years. Clearly something of an ingénue at the outset, Gallimard seems unaware that female roles in Beijing Opera are always played by men. But does he remain totally unaware that he is in fact being played by the Chinese government, when as he must he realises his lover is in fact a man? Was he in fact a homosexual desperately trying to play this down? David Henry Hwang stated in an interview –

"The lines between gay and straight become very blurred in this play, but I think he knows he's having an affair with a man. Therefore, on some level he is gay.”

When the truth is finally revealed, Gallimard is found guilty of treason and jailed. He claims that he was in love with the character Butterfly, not the actor. In jail, he has kept Song's kimono and wig. He dons them before killing himself, an echo of Puccini's opera, parts of which are played throughout the play.

A few years later the play was made into a movie with Jeremy Irons and John Lone. B.D. Wong was wonderfully believable on stage. On film John Lone is wooden and remarkably boring as Song. While the play's first run had 777 performances on Broadway, not surprisingly the movie was a complete bomb at the box office.