M Butterfly Review

 

M Butterfly is not the opera. I want to get that clear before I write anything else because I have a gut feeling that people are looking at the publicity for this amazing production and in the back of their minds the opera is putting them off buying tickets; because frankly ticket sales at the moment could be better, and I’m extremely disappointed in Perth for it.  

I will also clarify that knowing several of the cast and the director I am biased. So I will attempt to write this review of the brilliant show I was lucky enough to see without bias and without spoilers (from now).  

Directed by Barry Park, M Butterfly is the story of Rene Gallimard (Eliot McCann), a French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese actress, Song Liling, who commits the deepest of betrayals.

Rene is madly in love with Butterfly (as he calls Song Liling, played by Chuck McComb) and as such he is blinded to everything else around him, including Butterfly’s true nature. The story suggests that as a Westerner he is too eager to believe that an Oriental woman would be completely submissive to his superiority to even consider that she would have an ulterior motive for being with him.

 

This play touches on some very controversial topics, and while there are some moments which can be very shocking to those more conservative audience members, Mr. Park has approached the play with the utmost delicacy and has done a marvellous job of directing the actors to have complete respect for the story they are sharing.  

There was never a feel of waste to this production; the entire stage was used to perfection with very clear barriers between each setting. And the movement of each of the lead characters between scenes was kept interesting with more expounding of the story and the background behind what the audience was about to see.  

I felt like the storytelling by Rene and Butterfly was actually helpful in explaining a lot of the action that took place offstage and would have dragged the play out too much. It also showed a different dynamic in the relationship between the two characters and shows the changes in power, while also showing the audience just how much of the story is the way Rene wishes it had happened and what Butterfly knows happened.  

Finally the part I am most biased about. The two lead actors Chuck McComb and Eliot McCann were magnificent. I don’t say this because I only say nice things about people who are my friends, I say this as someone who has been around these two actors when they are being themselves; as someone who knows when the people they are seeing on stage are no longer the people they know in everyday life. What I was watching on stage was a true performance of genius that is not to be missed.

Yeah so much for avoiding bias. The only thing I found that disappointed me about this show was the lack of audience to see such a piece of craftsmanship. If you do not even just attempt to make the last four performances of this show you are doing yourself a disservice. If you have seen the show and have not recommended the show to others, what are you waiting for?! The final performances are this Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30pm in the Dolphin Theatre at UWA. Get your tickets at the door or buy them online from http://www.trybooking.com/ 32475