Theatre
Butterflies Are Free
St James Cavalier

A young person’s fight for emancipation often takes the form of flight – from home and motherly comforts to independentliving. Young men, especially, have a hard time being let go because severing ties with home can prove hard if home keeps chasing you – particularly if you are considered vulnerable.

FM Theatre’s production of Leonard Gershe’s 1969 play Butterflies Are Free, which runs at St James Cavalier, presents the audience with such a situation from the sensitive perception of the blind Don Baker (Luke Mercieca), a 20-something aspiring singer-songwriter who has finally convinced his controlling mother (Marika Fenech) to let him try living on his own in New York, leaving his stuffy suburb behind.

One month into his newfound independence, with only daily phone calls from his mother, Don encounters the ditzy but worldly Jill Tanner (Maxine Aquilina), his next-door neighbour, already divorced at 19. Having got married and become a hippy to rebel against her mother, Jill opts out of both because her mum married four times and thought the hippy style was cool, or, to keep with the 1960s setting, groovy.

Thus, a budding friendship over an impromptu pretend picnic lunch of sandwiches on the living room floor, leads to the two having a fling, only to be discovered by a horrified Mrs Baker, who couldn’t resist her urge to discover exactly what her son was up to alone in New York. Jill, thinking she ought to be an aspiring actress, leaves for an audition, promising to be back in time for dinner, following a heated discussion with Mrs Baker, but fails to return until much later with her director, Ralph Austin (Jimmy Monaghan) in tow and tells Don that she plans to go and live with Austin.

While the basic plot is simple enough, it belies a sparkling script peppered with great societal observations and comments on life, love and letting go.

A message that deserves to be seen and repeated in performances over the next weeks

Aquilina gave a bright, incredibly likeable and engaging performance as the flaky and rather flighty Jill, who still manages to inspire the girl-shy but self-possessed Don to want more. Indeed, the lightness of their initial conversations in the first act belies a deeper pathos which appears in their confrontation towards the end of the play. Don, having finally been given the freedom he needs from his mother – with Mrs Baker insisting he stays on in New York and learn to grow up and handle disappointment – does the same with Jill and challenges her fear of commitment.

Mercieca’s polished performance as Don portrayed a confident, intelligent young man whose blindness did not hinder him as much as his inexperience in dealing with the emotional setbacks the world can throw at you.

Mercieca navigated Romualdo Moretti’s perfect retro set in a very good rendition of a blind person’s methods of handling their unseen environment.

Fenech managed to imbue the well-intentioned but overprotective Mrs Baker with the right kind of strength which, following a very revealing conversation with Jill, ultimately led her to the right decision in giving her son the space he needed to become his own man, in spite of competition from men like Monaghan’s Austin – a short but good rendition of a stereotype.

Director Stephen Oliver had the ideal cast to work with – actors whose personal dynamics reflected those of their characters and who drew on this to create a cohesive and highly enjoyable play, rich is character study and development.

While the 1960s setting is crucial, Gershe’s script is not the least bit dated and in spite of its being nearly 50 years old, has a timeless quality of observation and a sharp playful wit, which make the play itself extremely fun to watch. Proof of this is that while it’s a two-act play, lasting close to two hours, time simply flew by, thanks to a combination of great acting pace and fluidity of dialogue.

The title – inspired by Charles Dickens, written into Don’s original song and composed in 1969 by Stephen Schwartz specifically for the show – reminds us that we can only truly achieve freedom when we allow release from the shackles we place on ourselves: a message that deserves to be seen and repeated in performances over the next couple of weeks.

• Butterflies are Free is again being staged at St James Cavalier tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and on June 4-7 at 8pm.

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