292 Theatre to Present IN THE BAR OF A TOKYO HOTEL, 3/7
In a tiny house of just twenty seats, 292 Theatre offers a beautiful production of In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, a play which has been staged in New York only twice before. The production will run from March 7th-31st and is directed by Charles Schick & Regina Bartkoff.
As described by Clive Barnes, '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.'
In playing the roles of Mark and Miriam, co-directors Charles Schick and Regina Bartkoff bring an interesting shade of authenticity to this play—in real life they are both painters and married to each other, but that is where any similarity to Mark and Miriam stops. Recently they both appeared at La Mama in Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, also by Tennessee Williams, along with Mink Stole and Everett Quinton. Wayne Henry,* playing Leonard the picture dealer (he’ll also fill the small but significant role of the Hawaiian Lady), is a Tennessee Williams veteran himself, appearing with
Charles Schick in The Strangest Kind of Romance as part of a touring Tennessee Williams festival last spring. In the role of Bar-Man, LA-based Brandon Lim makes his New York stage debut in this production of In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel.
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