In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel

by Tennessee Williams

As Clive Barnes outlines: "Superficially the play is about the painter famous, rich and lost and his wife, who find themselves in a Tokyo hotel. The wife, wildly promiscuous, tries to seduce the Japanese barman in the hotel bar. The artist is in his room, naked on a canvas with a spray-gun, trying to develop a new technique, almost confident that he has invented color. Almost confident, but not quite, for he lacks confidence the way an anemic man lacks blood. The artist, in the final stages of some spiritual or physical dissolution, at last joins his wife in the bar. But she has sent to Manhattan for his picture dealer and friend. She then goes out, presumably to find a man. A few days later the dealer arrives in Tokyo. The wife, determined to be free, tries to persuade the friend to take the artist back to New York, under sedation if necessary. But the artist foils her plans by dying. Suddenly, with the bleakness of loss, she finds that she too has nowhere to go."

Genres: Plays, Theatre

45 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.

Raised in St. Louis, Missouri, after years of obscurity, at age 33 he became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century, alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Harry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gaudy and awful. Another example that Williams’ departure from the self proclaimed ‘pseudorealistic plays’, of which Streetcar stands as his finest (although Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Night of the Iguana deserve honorable mention), showcases his devolution from a legitimate storyteller to a disconnected arthouse driveler. To think that the play-write himself thought this his finest play truly reveals his madness in late life.

[Jojo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like this could have been interesting but something about the way the dialogue was written didn't work for me. It constantly felt like sentences were left unfinished...I assume that was the point but I didn't like it. This one just didn't cut it for me.

[Franc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd dialogue in this odd but excellent short play . It's hard not to see Tennessee behind the thin gauze of Mark the dying artist.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really mixed feelings about this play. I enjoyed the general plot and Williams’ attempt to play with syntax and dialogue but overall I think this experiment fell short in execution

[Jason Hillenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Williams' most successful experiments, but difficult to stage. I can only imagine it being as successful as the casting of its leads. The dialogue is structured that characters overlap each other, finishing each others sentences, steering conversations in new directions. It might be a bewildering read for some at first, but it is thought provoking, if you persist. Obviously very personal, as well. and written at a point in Williams' life when his health and sanity were in extremis.

[Robby Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't get this at all when I first read it. Weird syntax. Dialogue ending in conjunctions. Then I went to see a [mediocre] production of the play and I got it. I reread it and it all made sense. Not at the top of Williams' accomplishments, but entertaining and still full of the Williams poetry.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Very different dialogue style than any other Williams I've read. It almost wanted to be a wacky comedy but then would seem too serious at other times, so I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. A dark comedy about the demise of an artist's sanity?