Tennessee Williams' late-career work always has a formidable barrier to surmount: the glorious dramas of his younger self. When first presented in 1969, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel was greeted by groans of disappointment and wounding words. Now, from a distance, ably directed by Cyndy A. Marion for the White Horse Theater Company, this small but delicately complex composition seems to be a remarkably personal Williams statement. One of its principal themes is the mature artist exploring new avenues and being misunderstood and rejected. It's a play with its own built-in self-prophesy. While our beloved Tennessee adds some exploratory touches, such as speaking directly to the audience, plus fragmentation of dialogue, the play really doesn't wander far from the home territory of heightened naturalism with symbols that lurk but never intrude. Echoes of earlier plays abound, but they are plaintive echoes well worth hearing again.
The opening theme is that of American imperialism -- an emotionally untidy American in a fastidious setting. The American is Miriam (Laura Siner) and the setting is the bar of a Tokyo hotel, controlled by a character called Bar-Man (Toshiji Takeshima). Williams creates Miriam as the prototype of the ugly American abroad, blundering her way through a foreign culture, loudly making demands both intoxicating and sexual. Upstairs, her artist husband, Mark (Niall O'Hegarty), is experimenting with a new technique of rolling on his canvases, so there's literally nothing between the artist and his art. When Mark finally appears, we see he is the artist in extremis -- a Williams favorite -- a man in meltdown, both physically and emotionally. Miriam phones for Mark's agent, Leonard (Greg Homison), to fly in to assist as Mark descends into free fall.
Within the unsympathetic role of Miriam, the interpreter has to find sympathy -- not an easy task. Siner is only able to make the sketchiest outline of this contradictory Williams portrait. O'Hegarty's Mark is much more vivid, aided by Homison's silkily smooth Leonard and especially Takeshima's stalwart Bar-Man.
Presented by the White Horse Theater Company in association with Sue Goodwin, Anthony W. and Loretta Lopez, John and Loretta Marion, and Herb and Liz Tulchin
at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, 312 W. 36th St., NYC.
Feb. 2-18. Tue.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.
(212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.