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The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1953 play written by John Patrick adapted from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. The play was later adapted for film in 1956, and the 1970 Broadway musical Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen. The play opened on Broadway in October 1953. It was a Broadway hit, running for 1,027 performances and winning awards ...
- Vern Sneider
- 1951
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
- Further Reading
John Patrick Goggan was born on May 17, 1905, in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of John Francis and Myrtle (Osborn) Goggan. Abandoned by both of them, Patrick spent his childhood in a variety of foster homes and boarding schools, including St. Edward’s School in Austin, Texas, and Holy Cross School, in New Orleans. A drifter during much of his teen ...
Actl
Act 1, scene 1 of The Teahouse of the August Moontakes place at an American military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa during the American Occupation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. Sakini, a local Okinawan interpreter for the American military, speaks directly to the audience, introducing the setting and historical circumstances of the play in which Colonel Purdy is in charge of instituting the Americanization of the local culture. Captain Fisby, a young officer, arrives at t...
Act 2
Act 2, scene 1 takes place in Tobiki, a few days later. Fisby, mistaking Lotus Blossom for a prostitute, disapproves of her popularity among the local men and her influence among the local women. Sakini, however, explains to him that she is a geisha, a woman who plays a traditional role in Japanese culture that includes the serving of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The newly appointed local governmenthas used the democratic process to vote for the building of a local teahouse in which...
Act 3
Act 3, scene 1 takes place at the newly built teahouse, several weeks later. Fisby is presented with a birthday gift. A wrestling match is held in the teahouse, as entertainment. As Fisby and McLean are leading the villagers in singing “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” Colonel Purdy arrives unexpectedly. McLean and Fisby are immediately chastised for misusing the building materials intended for the schoolhouse and for marketing the liquor. Purdy orders that the teahouse be torn down and the brand...
Captain Fisby
Captain Fisby is the young officer assigned to implement “Plan B” in the Americanization process of the tiny Okinawan village of Tobiki. Fisby is described as,“in his late twenties, nice-looking and rather on the earnest side,” and is “nervous and eager to make a good impression” on his senior officer. From his office in Tobiki, Fisby is assigned to establish a local democratic government, institute a capitalist economy, and build a schoolhouse. He is at first frustrated in all of these effor...
Lotus Blossom
Lotus Blossom, a young geisha, is given to Fisby by her father, Mr. Sumata. She is described as “a petite and lovely geisha girl in traditional costume.” Fisby at first mistakes her for a prostitute and disapproves of her, until Sakini explains that a geisha serves a traditional role in Japanese culture much different from that of a prostitute in Western culture. Her presence in the village inspires the other women to want to become geishas, and the men to want a teahouse in which she can ser...
Captain McLean
Captain McLean is the army psychiatrist sent by Colonel Purdy to secretly evaluate Fisby. He is described as “an intense, rather wild-eyed man in his middle forties.” Once in Tobiki, however, McLean, who harbors a passion for horticulture, is quickly inspired to head the planting of crops in the village. By the time the teahouse is built, McLean, like Fisby, has accommodated himself to the local dress and customs. When Purdy arrives unexpectedly at the teahouse, McLean and Fisby lead the loca...
Democratization
This play is set during the Allied Occupation of Japan following World War II. During that period, from 1945 to 1952, the United Statesinstituted a policy of democratization, according to which the military was to oversee the establishment of some form of democratic or representational government. In the play, Captain Fisby is sent to the tiny village of Tobiki, on Okinawa Island, to carry out the process of democratization. In his opening monologue, the character of Sakini, an Okinawan inter...
Industry
In addition to democracy, Fisby is assigned to establish industry in Tobiki to “make them self-supporting.” Fisby learns of the traditional crafts of Tobiki as the villagers each present him with a gift, including a cricket cage and a fine, handcrafted, lacquered cup. This detail is in fact culturally accurate, as lacquer ware is indeed one of the traditional crafts of the Okinawa islands. The notion of industry, however, is at odds with the values of a traditional craft. Mr. Oshira, who has...
TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
1. This play takes place during the American Occupation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. Learn more about the American defeat of Japan and the subsequent Occupation. What were the major battles and events in the conflict between Japan and the United States? What were the conditions of the defeat of Japan? What were the conditions of the Occupation? 2. This play concerns the building of a traditional Japanese teahouse, to be serviced by a geisha. Learn more about the Japanese traditi...
Setting
The play is set during the American Occupation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. It takes place on the island of Okinawa, the largest of the Okinawa Islands, in the South China Sea. The setting is central to the play, which explores an attempt at democratization of the native Okinawan culture. The main characters are either U.S. military personnel or inhabitants of the tiny village of Tobiki, a fictional location.
Dialogue
The dialogue in this play represents two common elements of stereotypical depictions of Asian societies. The Okinawans—Sakini, for instance—speak a broken English that is a stereotypical representation throughout Western culture of the accents of Asian people from any national and linguistic background. This stereotypically broken English may be generally recognizable to many Western readers. For instance, Sakini, the interpreter for the Americans, after removing a piece of chewing gum from h...
Costumes
The costuming is important as an indication of the ways in which the two cultures, Japanese and American, confront and influence one another. Sakini’s outfit is a strong examples of this. As an interpreter for the American troops, Sakini, more than any other character in the play, moves easily between the two cultures. While Okinawan, he has adopted a number of habits from the American military personnel, and his outfit shows the result of this hybridizing of the two cultures. He wears “a nat...
World War II
World War II was waged from August 31, 1939, until August 14, 1945, between the Axis powers (including Germany, Italy, and Japan), and the Allied powers (including Great Britain, the USSR, and the United States). The War was carried out on many fronts, primarily in Europe and the SouthPacific.
Japanese and United States Relations before Pearl Harbor
Relations between the United States and Japan had grown increasingly tense over the decade preceding United States entry into World War II. Japan had developed a strongly militaristic foreign policy, with an aggressive stance toward many of its neighbors in Asia and the SouthPacific. In 1937, Japan invaded China, initiating the Sino-Japanese War, which continued until the end of World War II. In 1940, Japan formed an alliance with the Axis powers of Germany and Italy by signing the Tripartite...
The United States had maintained a staunch policy of neutrality during the first two years of World War II, although American sympathies leaned increasingly toward Great Britainand against Germany and Japan. Anti-war sentiments immediately changed, however, upon the Japanese bombing of a United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, on December 7, 1941. The attack, utilizing some 360 Japanese warplanes, came as a complete surprise, and permanently destroyed five of...
Teahouse of the August Moonwas first performed at the Martin Beck Theater in New York City in October 1953. A hit Broadway production, the first run lasted for over one thousand performances. A critical as well as popular success, the play earned Patrick many awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the Ye...
Liz Brent
Brent has a Ph.D. in American culture, specializing in film studies, from the University of Michigan. She is a freelance writer and teaches courses in the history of American cinema. In the following essay, Brent discusses the historical and cultural context of Patrick’s play. John Patrick’s stage play Teahouse of the August Moon,first performed in 1953, takes place on the island of Okinawa, during the American Occupation of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. Although a fictional story p...
WHAT DO I READ NEXT?
1. The Hasty Heart: A Play in Three Acts(1945) is John Patrick’s first successful stage play. 2. Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa(2000), edited by Michael Molasky and Steve Rabson, is a collection of poetry, short stories, and memoirs by modern Okinawan writers. 3. Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War7/(1995), by Robert Leckie, is a history of a decisive battle in World War II. 4. Democracy and Race: Asian Americans and World War II(1995), by Ronald Takaki, discusse...
Joyce Hart
Hart has degrees in English literature and creative writing. She is a freelance editor and published writer. In the following essay, Hart explores the complexities of acculturation as portrayed inThe Teahouse of the August Moon. John Patrick’s play The Teahouse of the August Moon,although first published in 1952 and therefore somewhat dated with its stereotypical characters and post World War II themes, nonetheless remains relevant today with its underlying conception (or misconception) of ac...
Atkinson, Brooks, Review in New York Times,October 16, 1953, p. 32. ———, Review in New York Times,October 25, 1953, p. 1. ———, Review in New York Times,September 12, 1954, p.l. ———, Review in New York Times,November 9, 1956, p.33. Barnes, Clive, Review in New York Times,December 29, 1970, p. 38. Marion, John, “John Patrick,” in Dictionary of Litera...
Black, Wallace B., and Jean F. Blashfield, Iwo Jima and Okinawa,Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993. Frank, Richard B., Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire,Random House, 1999. Golden, Arthur, Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel,Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. Molasky, Michael S., The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa: Literature and Memory,R...
The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1953 play written by John Patrick adapted from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider.The play was later adapted for film in 1956, and the 1970 Broadway musical Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen.
The Teahouse of the August Moon was adapted to television by John Patrick in a 1962 Broadcast of' 'Hallmark Hall of Fame,'' by NBC. Cite this page as follows: "The Teahouse of the August Moon ...
Pulitzer Prize. Teahouse of the August Moon, comedy in three acts by American playwright John Patrick, produced in 1953. Patrick satirized American good intentions in this lighthearted examination of an attempt by the military forces to Americanize a foreign culture. It was his best-known play and was based on a novel of the same name by Vern ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Aug 25, 2024 · The Teahouse of the August Moon is a 1953 play written by John Patrick adapted from the 1951 novel by Vern Sneider. The play was later adapted for film in 1956, and the 1970 Broadway musical Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen.
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This is a production of the play The Teahouse of the August Moon (by John Patrick), 22 nd April 1954 – 11 th August 1956, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket, London (now His Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket, London).
