DC Public Library System

M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang ; with a new introduction by the playwright

eng

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dramas

M. Butterfly

983822885

David Henry Hwang ; with a new introduction by the playwright

"Based on a true story that stunned the world, M. Butterfly opens in a cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government--and by his own illusions. In the darkness of his cell, he recalls a time when desire seemed to give him wings. A time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive--and as elusive--as a butterfly. How could he have known that his true love was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government--and a man disguised as a woman? In a series of flashbacks, the diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from temptation to seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both. But in the end, there remains only one truth: whether Gallimard's passion was a flight of fancy, it sparked the most vigorous emotions of his life. M. Butterfly was a sensation when it premiered in 1988, and it remains one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes--and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions"--Cover