Bitef

торжествующим экзотическим задникам и органике восточных костюмов (художник А. Коженкова), тонкой смене тягучих и стремительных ритмов, откровенной или эстетически выдержанной пластике персонажей, отточенност формы и головокружительное™ содержания. Роман Виктюк остается верен себе - в границах вкуса эстетов и светского шика. И спектакль смотрится на одном дыхании, не переставая удивлять безграничностью возможностей уникальной режиссероской индивидуальности.“ □ Наталья Колесова, Афиша, Студийно-Театральная Москва, 2-91 (28)

Afterword It all started in May of 1986, over casual dinner conversation. A friend asked, had I heard about the French diplomat who’d fallen in love with a Chinese actress, who subsequently turned out to be not only a spy, but a man? I later found a two-paragraph story in The New York Times. The diplomat, Bernard Bouriscot, attempting to account for the fact that he had never seen his “girlfriend” naked, was quoted as saying, “I thought she was very modest. I thought it was a Chinese custom, ” Now, I am aware that this is not a Chinese custom, that Asian women are no more shy with their lovers than are women of the West. I am also aware, however, that Bouriscot’s assumption was consistent with a certain stereotyped view of Asians as bowing, blushing flowers. I therefore concluded that the diplomat must have fallen in love, not with a person, but with a fantasy stereotype. I also inferred that, to the extent the Chinese spy encouraged these misperceptions, he must have played up to and exploited this image of the Oriental woman as demure and submissive. (In general, by the way, we prefer the term “Asian” to “Oriental”, in the same way “Black” is superior to “Negro”. I use the term “Oriental” specifically to denote an exotic or imperilistic view of the East.) I suspected there was a play here. I purposely refrained from further research, for I was not interested in