In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel

In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel is a one-act play in two scenes, written in 1968–69 by Tennessee Williams. Synopsis Mark is an alcoholic painter on the verge of a nervous breakdown who is trying to boost his sagging career by developing a new style in his Tokyo hotel room. Instead, he has convinced himself he is the first artist to discover color, and it appears he has drifted into psychosis as he spreads canvases on the floor, sprays paint at them with a spray gun, and rolls around on them in the nude. Meanwhile, his promiscuous wife Miriam, a typical Ugly American, is loudly and crudely trying to seduce the bartender in the hotel lounge. Anxious to be free of her husband without losing his financial support, she has contacted his Manhattan art dealer and close friend Leonard and asked him to join them in Japan. When he arrives, she tries to persuade him to take her husband back to New York, but Mark dies. Feeling lost and without direction, she laments, "I have no plans. I have nowhere to go" as the curtain falls. Production Although credited to the direction by Herbert Machiz, Tennessee Williams took over the direction and staged the play himself for its off-Broadway premiere at the Eastside Playhouse on May 11, 1969. It ran for 25 performances. The cast included Donald Madden as Mark, Anne Meacham as Miriam, and Lester Rawlins as Leonard.