Finally, a play! A. R. Gurney's Far East, originally produced at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts and presented at Lincoln Center earlier this year, is a rewarding piece of theater inspired by the plot of the opera, "Madame Butterfly," and the James Jones novel and film, "From Here to Eternity." Drama is chaos with control, and Gurney, who has written more than 25 plays, demonstrates the art of not only creating original material, but masterfully shaping it. The staging and direction by David Saint establishes a rhythm that is pleasantly mesmerizing in this piece, that leaves Gurney's hometown of Buffalo, where many of his plays have been set and where he explored the world of the White Anglo Saxon Protestant. Far East transports us to a Navy Airbase in the Japan of 1954 to examine the WASPs, there, and the many forms of prejudice that existed in those days. Soji (sp?) screens line the stage; off to one side, an Asian Reader, Sonnie Brown, piquantly portrays many parts, while signaling the end of each scene by sharply clacking two sticks together. Stagehands, enveloped in flowing black from head to toe, move softly, performing their duties, invisible, as were the Japanese in this context.
The strains of, "You Belong to Me," sung by Patti Page, and music composed by Dan Moses Schreier mingle in the background. Looking for significant life experiences, Princeton graduate Lieutenant "Sparky" Watts, played with the right touch of insouciance by Barnaby Carpenter, arrives on the naval base. Instead of attending Captain Anderson's wife's 4th of July party, he dates a Japanese girl. This, plus the fact that she is a waitress at the Officer's Club is, of course, is a real no-no. Despite Sparky's brashness, Anderson, acted with comfortable authority by Geoff Pierson, takes a liking to him, in part because of the recent death of his son. His own former affair with a Philippine woman makes him more understanding than his second wife, Julia. Stephanie Zimbalist is absolutely beautiful in the role of Julia, the bright but lost American woman with too much time on her hands. She's furious that this young lieutenant continues to see his lover and is intent on marrying her. She knows Sparky's aunt from her days at Smith College, and, after threatening to write to her in Milwaukee, does so, and also has the girl fired from her job.
Meanwhile, in a subplot, Sparky's Ensign bunkmate, Bob, played nicely by Tim Williams, trades top-level secrets for art work and is forced to admit he's a homosexual. Although without polemic, Far East, which takes place between the end of the Korean War and the beginning of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, provides a platform for the playwright to express his anti-war views through the character of the Captain, a regular Navy man, who can't stand being a paper-pusher. As they begin to research the topography of Vietnam, Sparky spouts the Domino Theory; The Captain doesn't buy it. Do you realize that 50,000 people died in the Korean War, he asks Sparky?
In the end, everyone but the Captain leaves for a future of uncertainty. Sparky insists he will return, but unlike MacArthur, it is highly unlikely. The fast track will surely take him far away.
