When the Butterfly bites
Image credit: The Young Vic website
Daniel Nelson
It starts with a production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly more than a century ago: the handsome visiting white US military officer and the pliant, Asian doll-woman.
He leaves, marries a White woman, and returns to find the love-sick Asian doll-woman still waiting for him, with his child.
The representatives of the conquering race agree to look after the child who was the result of the sexual liaison between the upright Christian male and the exotic kimono-clad native.
The doll-woman kills herself, dramatically and beautifully. At least she knows her child will have a proper (that is, American) life.
The production set the template for the subsequent pattern, with accompanying shifts of detail - such as grass skirts instead of kimonos, always with toiling or scheming natives in the background. And the doll-woman’s name is usually Kim
You’ve probably seen some of the films and plays: South Pacific, The King and I, The World of Suzie Wong, Miss Saigon, M*A*S*H.
untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon at the Young Vic mocks the whole ridiculous genre, which, yes, can stand as a metaphor for colonialism, with racism embedded.
It’s not a new idea, but the mockery is justified and scoffing at stereotypers gets good laughs, though the impact begins to slacken: it’s hard to make fun of repetition without becoming repetitious.
Suddenly setting and pace change, shifting from bamboo and tatami hut to a celebration dinner in a New York apartment. The mood gets serious. The woman is no longer a doll. She’s in sports outfit and stands aside from the food and drink and from the rest of her family - whose words and actions reflect attitudes from previous doll-woman scenes.
Kim is disturbed and cannot accept the new version of the directives about her behaviour she was given in the exotic Asian woman genre. She is ready to explode.
It’s clever and heartfelt, there’s laughter and drama. But both sections of the two-hour play linger a little too long. Just as it’s hard to convey repetition entertainingly, it’s equally difficult to avoid putting off the audience with sustained confusion and anger.
Not a bull’s eye, but several arrows hit the target.
* untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon, Young Vic, 66 The Cut, SE1, until 4 November. Info:Young Vic. Winner of the inaugural Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2019, International Award,