Muévete, mi mariposa

You don’t have to tell stories, but it’s necessary sometimes. Adele Mirabel, a character in the play In the Time of the Butterflies, steps into this necessity to tell the story of herself and her three sisters in the middle of the last century in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorial rule of President Rafael Trujillo.

The play, by Caridad Svich is based on a novel of the same name by Julia Alvarez. Alvarez wanted to write “beyond polemics.” The play does the same, zeroing in on the personal impact of the regime – especially Trujillo himself, directly – on the Mirabel family.  

The sisters become known as the mariposas, butterflies, and in varying degrees, decide to take action, and begin to join the revolution. Their world is broken, lives are taken, yet even in prison, they sing with each other muévete, mi niña, muévete – move, my girl, move.

It’s no spoiler to say not all of the sisters make it through, despite their strength and vision. The play tells you where things are headed. The action builds and builds. In the final two scenes we see the trap Trujillo has set. Then we see it close. It is a tearfully moving – even beautiful, if I can use that word – tableau of death and a kind of rising again.

Three of the sisters, Minerva, Mate, and Patria are gone. They return to us only because Adele lives to tell the family story to an American writer, the daughter of Dominicans who have moved to New York City. The writer, like all of us maybe, knows she is in danger of losing touch with her history. So Adele tells it. She has to, so no one forgets.

In the Time of the Butterflies is produced by Book-It and plays at the theater on the bottom floor of the Seattle Center Armory through October 16.