M. Butterfly was one of the most unique plays I’ve seen. Not only did the acting completely break the 4th wall, but the set design was so mobil and fluid which I believed allowed for such fluidity in the acting. The show starts as a story told in the perspective of Rene Gallimard but as the story grows more complicated and intricate we begin to get glimpses of Song Liling’s perspective and see what he had to go through while Gallimard was going through his own problems. This style of acting is so interesting to me because it makes me feel as if I am the person he is talking to; everybody in the audience feels interconnected with the story as if they are the only ones in the room. The ending shows an interaction between Gallimard and Butterfly and what I like about this interaction is that you don’t know if it is the story or if its out of context and a moment they share away from the story as the ending becomes a mix of storytelling and actual story. My favorite moment was when Gallimard says to Song Liling that the story is over and we actually see the set designers get on stage and begin stripping the set design. It was such a raw moment where we got the chance to see Gallimard’s emotions without anything else to focus on.
Set Design allowed the piece to move as smoothly as it did. There were scene changes that took place during Gallimard’s monologues to the audience and it just worked. I feel this is one of the many aspects of the play that made it so unique from the rest. It allowed for scenes to occur at the same time, for our own interpretation of some scenes, and for the actors to participate in the set design as we saw when the soldiers were spinning the huge “walls” that represented the pride in the revolution. All in all, I feel that this play was created beautifully and really allowed for the story to come to life in our own eyes.
