Teahouse of the August Moon – 2012

By John Patrick

Directed by Diane Fetterly

CATS opened its 18th season with the Tony award-winning comedy, The Teahouse of the August Moon, from April 12 to May 5, 2012, at the Nevada Theatre. Teahouse concerns the clash of cultures that resulted from the American Occupation of Okinawa from 1945 to 1952 following World War II.

John Patrick adapted the script from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. It opened on Broadway in 1953, winning numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the Year, the Pulitzer Prize in drama, and the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award. MGM produced a movie based on the play in 1956 starring Glenn Ford, Marlon Brando, Machiko Kyo, and Eddie Albert.

In the play, Captain Fisby, is assigned to carry out “Plan B”. In a tiny Okinawan village, he is to begin the process of Americanization by instituting a local democratic government, establishing a capitalist economy, and building a schoolhouse (Pentagon-shaped) in which the village children will be taught English.

The narrator of the play is an islander named Sakini, who often speaks in verse and is chided by American soldiers for being a lovable idiot. He serves as an interpreter to Captain Fisby, informing him of island customs. His monologues encapsulate the underlying wisdom of the play:

“We tell little story to demonstrate splendid example of benevolent assimilation of democracy by Okinawa.”