David Cronenberg loved the play so much that when he heard a movie was being made about it, he volunteered immediately to direct it.
The Chinese opera being performed by Song near the beginning is called "Gui Fei Zui Jiu", aka "The Drunken Concubine", aka "Yang Gui Fei Gets Tipsy".
The role of Song was originally played on stage by BD Wong, who started going by his initials in that role to hide his gender. Earlier in 1993, Wong appeared in Parque jurásico (1993) with Jeff Goldblum, who had appeared in Cronenberg's earlier film La mosca (1986).