Word: renee
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Hwang attacks cultural and social prejudices such as these in his account of the demise of Rene Gallimard, a French consul living in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution of the '60s. The plot is based on a true story of an affair between a French diplomat and a Chinese actress that became public in 1986 with expected notoriety. The Chinese actress, who supposedly bore the diplomat's child, was, in fact, both...
...Chaffin '00 skillfully conveyed both Rene's insecurity and futile search for a false ideal of true love when he described through a series of flashbacks from his cell in a Paris prison the details of Rene's scandalous affair. John Doan's portrayal of Rene's friend Marc as a ruthless womanizer who views women as objects designed for his pleasure magnified the pitiful character of Rene, who was unpopular at school, indulged his fantasies by reading playboy and married an older woman he didn't love...
...Rene's feelings of sexual inadequacy vanish when he hears Song sing the death scene from Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, a tale of love between an American navy officer and Japanese opera singer who kills herself after the officer abandons her. Here is what Rene has dreamt of his whole life: a beautiful woman who will submit to all his desires. Joseph Salonga played Song convincingly in a wig and ballet slippers, but could have projected better the seductive tone of his character's voice. I had difficulty making out some of his lines...
...Rene's success does not end with Song. At a party, he meets another version of his fantasy: a Danish student, played by Alexis Loeb '02, who within minutes of striking up a conversation asks him if he wants to fool around...
...Rene's chauvinistic attitude toward women infuses his political views. He repeatedly conflates stereotypes of Asian women as submissive sex slaves with an imperialistic view of the East. We can't help but wince at cliches such as, "So much for protecting her in my big Western arms" or "Orientals will always submit to a greater force," which he produces with over-whelming frequency. Rene follows in the footsteps of the comic figure prevalent in classical theater, a buffoon so completely blinded by a shallow and childlike ideology that he fails or rather refuses to foresee his eventual ruin...