M. Butterfly Revisited

Sometimes theater lovers decide to re-read plays just because of our love of theater and what we can gain from the second reading of a play. When plays are written as well as M. Butterfly is, we learn more insight every time we read it.

The setting of this masterpiece is in a Paris prison in the present, and in recall, during the decade of 1960 to 1970 in Beijing, and from the mid-60's to the present in Paris.

The play was suggested by international newspaper accounts of an espionage trial. This is truly a dramatic piece of art and is neither all fact nor all fiction but contains elements of both.

Story lines are not always the most interesting part of the play but in this case it is very important. Our main characters are a French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer who have been sentenced for spying for China. It is about a man who believed for 20 years the love of his life is a woman. Yet this story seems, somehow to be believable.

M. Butterfly has sometimes been regarded as an anti-American play. I don't find this to be the case although there is much in it about East/West relationships. This play explores not only the political world but also the sexual world.

I am an avid playreader and love to re-read plays to not only refresh my memory about forgotten details but, to learn the deeper meaning of the written word. Yes, that is my passion.

Is there anyone out there who feels as I do about reading and re-reading plays?

Ruth Goldman