PLAY USES 'BUTTERFLY' AS SUBTEXT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100200011-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: February 25, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100200011-8
STAT
The New York Times C 2(0
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Play Uses
`Butterfly'
As Subtext
By IRVIN MOLOTSKY
Spacial to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 - John
Dexter has directed many plays and
operas but never Puccini's "Madama
Butterfly."
"I thought it was so racist that I
couldn't face it," he said the other day
during a break in rehearsals for a bi-
zarre play that makes use of both the
melodies and what Mr. Dexter con-
siders the racism of "Madama But-
terfly" as its subtext.
First, the plot, which came from a
true story that was summarized in
The New York Times on May 11, 1986,
by the headline: "France Jails 2 in
Odd Case of Espionage."
Odd indeed. A man who worked for
the French foreign service had car-
ried on a 20-year love affair with a so-
prano from the Beijing Opera, never
discovering, he said, that the singer
was a man. Moreover, the singer was
a spy.
One thing led to another and the
diplomat, Bernard Boursicot, found
himself on trial in Paris on charges of
spying, since he had been turning
over secret information to his lover,
Shi Peipu.
'For Me He Was Really a Woman'
At the trial, the judge asked Mr.
Boursicot how he could have been so
taken in for 20 years and the French-
man answered, "I was shattered to
learn that he is a man, but my convic-
tion remains unshakable that for me
at the time he was really a woman
and was the first love of my life."
There are plenty of diplomats -
French, Chinese and otherwise - in
Washington, and, the record shows,
an occasional spy. But no one can re-
call anything even remotely like that
happening here.
Richard Helms a former director
of the central Intelligence enc ,
a
was French counterintellige ce )"
David Henry Hwang, the play-
wright, was also charmed, and it took
him less than a year to write a play,
based on the story, called "M. Butter-
fly," which he took to Mr. Dexter last
spring. Mr. Dexter agreed to direct
the play, and it has had its pre-Brood-
way opening here at the Naticeal
Theater, where it will play until
March 6.
The play opens March 20 in New
'York City at the Eugene O'Neill
Theater, a few days before a produc-
,tion of Berg's "Lulu," also-directed
by Mr. Dexter, opens at the fNetr-
politan Opera. After that, Mr. Dexter
vows, "Opera is behind me," and he
will devote his career to plays, Fof
him, there will be a "M.AButterfly"
but never a "Madame Butterfly.+' ,.
But Is It Believable?
r t
But is this believable, a man not
knowing that his lover of 20 years is
also a man? a
"I never had any -problem with
that," Mr. Dexter said. "A man in
pursuit of his fantasies is capable of
anything. If you permit yourself to be-
lieve badly enough, you see nothing
that you don't want to see. It's all in
But really, a 20-year fantasy?
Mr. Dexter thought a bit, and said
of the diplomat's refusal until the end
to acknowledge that his lover was not
a woman, "I am sure he kttew but
couldn't face it- so so instead he went
through an embarrassing trial."
It was nothing if not embarrassing.
Before being sentenced to six years in
jail, the French diplomat, Mr. Boursi-
cot, suggested that his mistake was
the result of his rendezvous with the
singer, Mr. Shi, always having taken
place in the dark.
"He was very shy," Mr. Boursicot
testified. "I thought it was a Chinese
custom."
Date 2 5 Peb 61
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100200011-8