The dialogue in the play was incredibly engaging and so easy to digest, even if the events unfolding weren’t. I love that the play broke the fourth wall and somehow, having Gallimard ask Butterfly not to explain her side of what happened or expose what really was happening behind the scenes wasn’t off-putting at all. Instead, it emphasized his fantasy of Butterfly and his love for the idea of her, as well as . In some ways, it seemed like he reacted more to those moments than when Butterfly actually exposed himself. Even in those moments, Butterfly was tender with Gallimard and it didn’t seem like things ended badly between the two; there was a huge contrast between the way Butterfly talked about how he tricked Gallimard into believing he was a man and the sex between them and the way Butterfly tried to coax Gallimard into telling his audience the full truth.
Another aspect of the play that I loved was how props and background took up very little of the stage space, but also wasn’t something that I found crucial to the performance except for in the traditional scenes. Colors and backgrounds were mostly instrumental when it came to displaying Communism takeover in China or just showing Chinese culture. When it came to showing Gallimard by himself or him working with his superiors or talking to his wife, the colors were drab and the backgrounds were dull compared to the bright hues of yellow and red that came up any time the cultural music made a comeback. Everything about the romance between Gallimard and Butterfly was colorful and Butterfly was always colorful up until the moment the two had to appear in court, and Butterfly was in a black and white suit. When Butterfly tried to assume her original, colorful outfit that he believed would make Gallimard recognize his love for Butterfly, it just no longer had the same effect.
