Butterflies Are Free (Hudie Shi Ziyou De) will run to June 29 at the Grand Chang'an Theater in Beijing.

Directed by Li Mingsen and featuring a crew and cast from Hong Kong and Shanghai, Butterflies by Leonard Gershe is the declaration of independence of a blind man from his overbearing mother with the help of a girl's flighty, free spirit.

It premiered in Hong Kong at the Spring Stage in 1999 and was co-produced with the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center in 2000 and returned to Shanghai earlier this month for 10 shows.

The original version of the play has run on Broadway for 1,128 impressive performances since 1969, and in 1972, a movie was made featuring a memorable Goldie Hawn and a young Edward Albert.

"Gershe's Butterflies are Free has become a success because it is an ideal blend of humor and serious elements," said Shanghai playwright Sha Yexin, who revised the play's Chinese script.

Don Baker, performed by Yu Yi, is witty, well-read, good-looking, plays a guitar and has a neat flat, but he is blind. He escapes to a big city from his mother, who does not believe he is capable of living on his own.

The story starts on his first day in his new apartment.

The girl next door, Jill Tanner, played by Hong Kong actress Jiao Yuan, is as wild and pretty as a butterfly, flitting from experience to experience, sipping and moving on.

The play follows their playful love affair. Don revels in her vitality, she draws strength from his sensitivity. Their affair is full of warm, knock-about repartee. Jill has her own take on life -- she personifies a childish, vivid girl who needs a thrill.

She is looking for adventures that make her feel like she is in a sort of a dream world where she can live however she wants, where she exists without any trouble.

Don needs someone to help him enjoy life. But that person used to always be his mother. She always helped and protected him but never with a feeling of happiness.

Director Li Mingsen, who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama and now teaches at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, takes the audience through Don's obvious difficulties, from his mother's hilariously catty objections, to Jill's final attempt to end the affair to stop his increasing reliance on her. In the end, Don pulls himself out of the mire of self-pity and emerges stronger, and more self-reliant.

"Butterflies Are Free is a warm, optimistic, very funny comedy. It's a show that leaves the audience glowing, laughing and ready to face tomorrow," said Jiao, who was born on the mainland to a Peking Opera actor father and a ballerina mother. They moved to Hong Kong when she was 3.

In 1999, the 19-year-old Jiao, who had just graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, featured in the original play in the role of Jill.

(China Daily June 25, 2004)