The Woodstock Playhouse presents M. Butterfly, A play by David Henry Hwang with music by Lucia Hwong, for one weekend only, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, November 18 and Saturday, November 19 with a Sunday, November 20 matinee at 2 p.m. at the Playhouse, 103 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock.
Based on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Madama Butterfly, Giacomo Puccini’s opera, M. Butterflywas an immediate sensation when it premiered on Broadway in 1988. The play opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government — and by his own illusions. He recalls a time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive — and as elusive — as a butterfly. The diplomat relives the 20-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both.
M. Butterfly won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play.