M. Butterfly's New Young Star Describes a Most Difficult Role

The Washington, D.C., area arts community is abuzz about the stunning professional debut of recent Juilliard School graduate J. Hiroyuki Liao as the quixotic Song Liling in the Arena Stage's unforgettable production of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award winning "M. Butterfly."

In an interview with the News-Press yesterday, the young Liao revealed that he is almost as adept in grasping and articulating the nuances of the play and his character in it as he has been on stage since the play opened to rave reviews last week.

As with the original production in 1988, the Song Liling role in this production was filled by a young novice with enormous talent and potential. And as with the original production, the gender of the actor in that role was deliberately obscured by the publicists, even as it was for Song Liling.

Thus, the Brooklyn, New York, native who grew up as James Liao became J. Hiroyuki Liao in the playbill (Hiroyuki being his real middle name) and in all the advance press releases and promotions, where all references to his gender, including pronouns, were carefully avoided.

Some unfamiliar with the play who attended last Friday night's performance, therefore, walked away remarking that they didn't realize there was an issue with the Liao character's gender until late in the final act.

But everyone afforded Liao a cheering, standing ovation at the conclusion of the performance, a marked appreciation for his unique talent and effort. The rest of the cast was received warmly, as well, but not as emphatically.

"This is by far the most amazing, challenging, difficult and meaningful role anyone could hope to play," Liao said of playing Song Liling. "I am just beginning, but a role like this may never come along again. I enjoy every single second of it. It is an honor and a privilege to try to tell this story every night, and everybody at the Arena Stage, from the company of actors to the staff, director and stage management, has been endlessly supportive, selfless and generous."

His character is a superstar of the Peking Opera in China who meets, falls in love and lives for 23 years with a French diplomat. The story is based on true events and includes intrigue and espionage spawned during the terrible period of Chinese Cultural Revolution.

It parallels Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" in important metaphorical elements, and draws from that music at key junctures.

In a highly unique and deft aspect of his performance, Liao plays Song as dressed in the formal kimono, wig and powdered face attire of the Peking Opera, even in casual scenes, and emulating the hand, arm and body gestures associated with the opera in every move and in accompanying every line. This, according to Liao, serves to underscore the illusory, fantastical nature of the play's narrative as told through the memories of his character's lover, the older Frenchman Rene Gallimard (played magnificently by Stephen Bogardus).

Song exists, after all, as Gallimard's fantasy, Liao points out. The acting challenge, he said, is to pull this off without appearing "cartoonish," but stylish in the manner of the Peking Opera.

"I've worked on the gestures for months and continue to practice them for hours a day to make them second nature," Liao said. An expert in the Peking Opera, who performed for it during the Cultural Revolution in Shanghai, now operates a school in Washington, D.C. He came to the Arena stage and tutored the actors for five hours one day. Liao has a video tape of that, and now "watches it about 30 times a day."

"It's not about faking it. It's about getting it into the bones. It's about understanding how Song's way of picking up a cup of tea is different from mine," he said.

Japanese Kabuki theatre is similar, but not exactly the same, he noted. Kabuki was all he could find in New York after he learned he got the part, before he moved here for rehearsals in early August.

"Our director, Tazewell Thompson, convinced me that I did not have to perfect the motions, but only to capture the essence of them to show respect to the great tradition from which they come. He convinced me that this is a love story, not a documentary on the Peking Opera," Liao said. "But I am still striving to improve."

Liao said a big part of it is also trying to get into Song's mind. "She has chosen to be a woman, dressing in a nightgown and going through all the mannerisms even when alone. I asked the question of why Song prefers to be a woman."

Asked for his opinion of the answer, Liao said, "That's an actor's secret. Suffice it to say I feel there are very, very strong reasons."

But then he went on. "It has to do with the society she comes from, who she is and what she represents in a society that is the only home she knows. It is a male dominated society, and she has been terribly wronged by men. She, herself, knew she couldn't be the kind of man that had wronged her," he remarked, "So she began living a fantasy life as well."

"Politics is rampant in and out of this story," he said, "But it is not central to it. It is more the universal idea of perceptions and misperceptions, of why it is so hard to face life truthfully."

"Both (Song and Gallimard) have misperceptions. Both prefer to be duped than boldly face the truth. This can only lead to tragic consequences."

He said that despite the cultural differences, and the rage Song feels, along with her entire culture, toward Western notions of dominance, "she does fall in love with Gallimard." He added, "She's also manipulative and deceitful, but still she loves this man as a Western cad because she recognizes that he is also an outcast in his own culture.

"This is also a metaphor for how societies interact," he added. "It is rooted in stereotypes of power and submission and there is no communication."

Asked about the biggest challenge of his part, Liao said, "On top of telling the story, in the end, it is the discovery and trying to understand this character in a truthful way, and to face my own beliefs on certain things."

"It is facing what it was like to be a woman in that society at that time. As a person, I have grown to gain a greater sensitivity for women. I have faced my own chauvinism and recognized things I have dismissed because they were feminine. 'Wow, dude, you've done some messed up things, too,' I've said to myself. Beyond doing a good job, this part demands that one transcend demons and misconceptions, both as an actor and, hopefully, an audience. I've grown as a person, and this has been a great blessing."

He recalled the most important lesson he learned from his most important drama teacher, Marjorie Ballentine, who had her own drama studio in Brooklyn. "Your humanity is the most important thing you have to offer," she taught him. "She planted the seeds of creativity, and brought a broader lens to see things," Liao said.

The youngest of four children in a blue collar Brooklyn family, Liao entered the U.S. Army after high school but was discharged for obscure medical reasons after one year at Ft. Benning. "I was simmering. I needed something to calm me down. My sister suggested I get into acting as therapy," he said.

Still, Liao got a good full time job and after two and a half years got a promotion. But his sister convinced him to audition at Julliard, and 10 days after he did, he got a notice of acceptance. Only 18 out of 1,300 to 1,500 applicants get accepted each year.

Of his current success in his first ever professional production at the Arena Stage, Liao says, "It's by far the most exciting thing that has happened in my life, since the Mets won the World Series in 1986. And I had nothing to do with that."

M. Butterfly runs through October 17 in the Fichandler at the Arena Stage. For tickets call (202) 488-3300. www.arenastage.org.