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Southern Voice/April 25, 1991
15
COUNTERCULTURE
Tennessee, Blanche and Maggie
Burn Themselves Up
Blowing the
Lid Off
Sexual
Subterfuge
by Dave Hayward
"M. Butterfly is not a gay play, but the
fact is it's about two men," proclaims
playwright David Henry Hwang, on the
eve of Butterfly's opening May 3rd at the
Fox. "However disguised it's literally a
gay relationship, and it challenges the vis
ibility of putting people into categories."
Reflecting a real life story, M .
Butterfly recounts the 20 year affair
between a French diplomat Rene
Gallimard and a Chinese Opera star Song
Liling, who beneath massive headresses
and voluminous kimonos happens to be a
man—a fact the diplomat ever denies
knowing, along with Song's spying for the
Chinese government.
Hwang sees that his drama of sexual
and self-deception is simpatico with gay
audiences, and local groups Jerusalem
House, Childkind and Project Open Hand
are capitalizing on its appeal to stage their
first joint fundraiser—a theatre party and
lavish reception hosted by ten caterers on
opening night May 3rd. With almost
everything donated, "95% of everyone's
THEATRE PREVIEW
M. Butterfly
May 3-5, Friday at 8 pm;
Saturday at 2 pm & 8 pm;
Sunday at 2 pm and 7:30
Fox Theatre
249-6400
dollar will go directly to the charities,"
says coordinator Janet Selig. "It shows
three AIDS service organizations can
work together and can help each other."
"I'm not aware of anything in M .
Butterfly direcdy related to AIDS, but the
audience response is conditioned by an
awareness of AIDS," allows Hwang about
Butterfly's relevance. "It's about how dif
ficult it is to know the people we're in
love with. We wake up and wonder who
was that person, how could I have thought
they're actually like this! It's also the age
we live in and our uncertainty about our
partners - they're not telling us something,
they could hurt us in some way, and not
just emotionally."
Hwang sees that Butterfly thus makes a
Philip Anglim and A. Mapa in M.
Butterfly, David Henry Hwang's
Tony Award winning drama at the
Fox May 3-5.
passionate stand for honesty, and by
extension coming out. "Some people are
attracted to the opposite sex, some are
attracted to the same sex, and some are
attracted to both sexes. And it's all okay,
there shouldn't be any need or oppression
for us to conform." Speaking for himself,
Hwang says he’s basically straight, yet "I
haven't really had a gay relationship, but I
like to feel I’m open to that part of me."
Hwang occupies an important histori
cal place as the first Asian-American to
have a play produced on Broadway, and a
highly successful one, winning three
Tonys, including Best Play and running
longer than any drama since Amadeus.
Closing on Broadway in January 1990,
M. Butterfly began its national tour in
Boston in September where it broke box
office records.
As Broadway's first direct Asian-
American statement, Hwang emphasizes
"Butterfly is as much about the East and
West as it is about sexuality. An Asian
man knows the West. Here he knows the
stereotypes, and he fulfills them.”
Gallimard claims he never knew Song
was a man because he never saw him
naked, which he attributes to Oriental
modesty, while Hwang denies Asian
women are at all inhibited when they are
alone with their lovers.
"M. Butterfly is supportive of femi
nism, it’s putting down the male desire for
submissive women," Hwang stresses. "In
the Kabuki onnegata, the men in Kabuki
who play women’s roles, they say a
woman can only be a woman, but a man
can be an idealization of a woman." And
we can all pay dearly for those delusions,
as M. Butterfly indelibly demonstrates.
"Tennessee in the Summer" is a har
rowing object lesson for any creative per
son, especially for gay men. Dramatizing
one of the world's greatest playwrights,
author Joe Besecker relentlessly exposes
Tennessee Williams' drugging, drinking
and fornicating into creative and final
oblivion. Amazingly, Williams' writing
literally kept him alive, even when he had
little to say.
THEATRE REVIEW
Tennessee in the Summer
Thru May 5
14th Street Playhouse
heroes Blanche duBois and Maggie the
Cat aren't overlooked via a fascinating
device of splitting the author into a man
and a woman. Amusingly costumed by
Lee Shiver, Nan McElroy sprawls in
lavender slips and white negligee, burning
up the bedcovers while Johnny Walsh as
Tennessee clucks and tsks. It's great f un to
watch Walsh and McElroy entice Frank
into their collective beds.
Nan McElroy is a quintessential
Williams woman, as fastidious as she is
erotic, and much of Tennessee's irreverent
humor comes out of her.
Director Putnam elicits a capable per
formance from Chuck Tedder as Williams'
lover Frank, and as a hustler and
Ambitiously structured, Tennessee
covers over 40 years, from 1934-1975,
during which we chart our anti-hero's
ascendancy and decline. Act One is more
engaging as we discover the playwright's
promise and personna as he spews out
major works and embarks on a long-term
love affair with Frank Merlo. By Act Two
Williams is deeply in his cups. More
attention by Besecker on Williams' art and
less on his agonies would increase
Tennessee's impact, and engender a
greater sense of loss.
Fortunately, Williams' legendary
Nat’l G&L Film Fest
Tour Director Cites National
Thirst for Collective Gay
Experience
Envisioning crowds of gay men and
lesbians encircling the Plaza Theatre
openly holding hands, "it forces the
straight population to acknowledge our
existence, like it does in other cities,"
National Gay and Lesbian Film Tour
Director Vance Deare declares. "There’s a
thirst for this kind of outlet around the
country. We sit in the theatre as a collec
tive and see ourselves on the silver
screen."
Now playing through May 2nd, the
Film Tour is runnung two weeks here
instead of the usual ten days. "We
extended our stay to honor the First
National Lesbian Conference," Deare
reveals, including a joint Film
Tour/Conference reception at Petrus on
April 27th at 6 p.m.
Atlanta also marks the premiere on
tour of Johanna d'Arc, a kind of lesbian
Shangri-La fairy tale, and the Southern
premiere of Coming Out, a saga of furtive
gay life in East Berlin before the Wall
Williams' brother. Seeing Tedder and
Walsh share an affectionate bed is refresh
ing, a foray for once into intimate male
union.
Johnny Walsh is mixed as Williams,
overwrought initially in the Kirk Douglas
school of chin acting. Walsh modulates
his performance so by Act Two he is con
vincing as a sodden Williams who has
seen better days. He deftly delivers the
playwright's lust as well as his prissiness.
As a whole, Tennessee pinpoints
Williams' triumph and ultimate defeat:
"My vulnerability has always sat at the
center of my plays."
Coining Out
came tumbling down. Atlanta's the last
stop on the road before June, when the
tour transforms into the New York
International Festival of Lesbian and Gay
Film. After New York, the tour resumes
storming the country.
The National Gay and Lesbian Film Tour
continues through May 2 at The Lefonl
Plaza Theatre. 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave.
For a complete schedule see ad on page
17.
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