Based on an amazing true story which began in China in 1961, M. Butterfly tells the tale of a Chinese opera star-turned-spy who duped a lonely French diplomat into revealing government secrets by keeping a hidden identity - for 20 years. This is the play that introduced B.D. Wong to wider audiences and won him a Tony award. Mr. Livingston's creation will be a miraculous metaphor of the merging of societies when powers try to out-wit one another in the International chess game still being played today. This play is of particularly timely substance as we enter a new era of Chinese -American cooperation and U.S. Foreign policies in the Mid-East echo of past mistakes ignored.