When Julie Taymor was initially approached to direct the revival of David Henry Hwang鈥檚 Tony Award鈥搘inning M. Butterfly鈥攂ased on the true story of French diplomat Bernard Boursicot鈥檚 affair with a Chinese opera singer鈥攕he said no.
鈥淚 felt the play that I had read, that I saw years ago鈥� I didn鈥檛 want to do it,鈥� she says.
But, doing her due diligence before officially turning it down, she dug into the events that inspired the play. Taymor鈥檚 research led to details that, at the time of Hwang鈥檚 writing, had yet to be unearthed. 鈥淓lements of that real story were shocking. Amazing.鈥� That was enough for Taymor to sign on; her new production begins performances October 7 at Broadway鈥檚 Cort Theatre.
To a woman who holds story and visuals in equal importance, finding an ideograph on which to center the story (and match form to content) was priority number one. Hwang鈥檚 diplomat character Rene Gallimard, played here by Clive Owen, narrates the story of his affair from a prison cell. It鈥檚 a tale he鈥檚 told nightly, mining his memory to figure out his own story.
Taymor realized: 鈥淲hat David Henry Hwang has written is a Chinese puzzle box,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a cell, it鈥檚 hard, it鈥檚 cold; he鈥檚 confined, it鈥檚 small. This notion of the box, this puzzle box, is really facets of his brain鈥攐f his imagination.鈥�
As Taymor learned more details of the history and Hwang revised his script, the box expanded. 鈥淸The details] made it a much bigger puzzle box and much more of a roller coaster ride, and also鈥攚ithout us having to do it on purpose鈥攎ore contemporary,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e call it the metamorphosis of a modern classic because he is bravely transforming his play.鈥�
Similarly, Taymor wanted to push the boundaries of the physical production. Taymor鈥檚 M. Butterfly is a confluence of substance and spectacle. Though the Chinese puzzle box initially inspired the design, the demands of Hwang鈥檚 writing forced Taymor in a different direction.
鈥淭here are about 30-something scenes in the first act alone. When we got to Scene 7 on the Chinese puzzle box, [set designer Paul Steinberg and I] got exhausted.鈥� Borrowing from a Japanese Bunraku technique Taymor witnessed when she was 20, the director found a cinematic solution. 鈥淸The end of that show] was a whole bunch of screens that would flip, and flip down, and turn around, like Roman shades or Venetian blinds鈥� this scene, that scene, but all done mechanically,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚 never got over how beautiful that was.鈥�
Taymor uses screens鈥攈ere more like Shoji screens made of glass, smoked glass, metal, covered in wallpaper, etc.鈥攖o create the architecture of her show. 鈥�Butterfly is written cinematically,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檝e tried to do what the writer intended that I don鈥檛 think for 30 years anybody else has tried to do exactly.鈥�
