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| M Butterfly reviews | |
| Posted by: fm_15 03:18 pm EDT 10/27/17 | |
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| Saw it Wednesday night before last night's opening. My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, I'm extremely disappointed in the overall look and presentation of the piece because my mind went wild with possibilities once I heard Taymor was on board. My last Taymor show was Midsummer Night's Dream and that was eye-popping. Sadly I am coming to terms with her limitations. Yes she is definitely a "visionary" but after all these years and successes, I feel she still hasn't settled into that comfort zone of the established brand/polished craft that most artists of her caliber do at some point in their career. Her work is so wildly inconsistent sometimes within one show that you'd think two different people directed it. Take Spider Man for example. It opened with some stunning visuals during the "Arachne" backstory -- the weaving on stage of the drapes with the girls on swings, the eerily macabre yet beautiful image of dead Arachne dangling from the stage. Then an hour later we see a villain with shoes dangling from spikes out of her body (even a 10 year old could do better for a Halloween costume) and Lizard's costume was essentially a pool balloon attached behind the actor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then look at her Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera -- as usual she had parts that delighted like those comical but regal looking puppets for the Bears. But when her Queen of the Night was revealed, I thought I was looking at some hastily put-together costume by a third rate drag queen. I was so distracted, I couldn't enjoy her first aria which is my favorite Mozart aria. If only she had Titania's gorgeous costume from Midsummer Night, now THAT was a winner. This production is essentially a series of distracting screens dangling from fly space that workers move around making it even more distracting. Not quite a stark production yet not inventive either. It looked like the end product of great vision held back by budget constraints. That said, the story and the themes Hwang's play presents is almost fool-proof in it's ability to mesmerize. Full disclosure, as an Asian American who used to date exclusively white males, I found this story to be an eye-opener like a shot of nitro espresso when I first saw the movie version years ago. The complexities of East-West sexual relations is under full scrutiny here and there seems to be no end to the discussions this story can spark. I disagree with Brantley's suggestion that the added text in this revival adds unnecessary confusion. That it's no longer a straight forward: "confused the he-for-a-she" story is not a loss to me. I like that he borrowed from the real life story and turned it into a "confused he-for-a-she, who is really a he-pretending-to-be-a-she" story. However like Brantley I really did love Owen's performance. I'm not sure what performance Talkin Bway's critic saw but I saw a man who seemed to be making up for his lack of masculinity with overcompensated (or at least distorted) masculinity. Yes like Brantley said, with Owen's portrayal, I can easily see how he never got the girl in high school. I was less pleased with Jin Ha's performance however. It was too tepid and restrained for my taste and it was mostly from his line readings. I'm not sure how he speaks in real life, but it almost sounded like he wasn't sure what accent or what voice to use for Song so the overall effect was too deliberate, too intrusive (very obviously acting). Despite these shortcomings, I was very pleased to finally see this on stage and re-explore (continue exploring?) the fascinating questions this story poses. |
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| re: M Butterfly reviews | |
| Posted by: lowwriter 12:57 am EDT 10/28/17 | |
| In reply to: M Butterfly reviews - fm_15 03:18 pm EDT 10/27/17 | |
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| Despite Taymor almost killing this play with her uninspired direction, I thought Owen was fine and I'd return to see the show again for him. | |
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