The Theatre of Tennessee Williams brings together in matching format
the plays of one of America's most persistently influential and
innovative dramatists. Arranged in chronological order, this ongoing
series includes the original cast listings and production notes for all
full-length plays. Now available as a New Directions paperbook, Volume
VII: In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Other Plays, contains Williams's
shorter plays of the late '50s and '60s, many of them published in
Dragon Country in 1970. In "dragon country... this country of endured
but unendurable pain," the bar, the hotel lobby, the boarding house, the
nursing home or "retirement village" are microcosms of the human
condition where we are never, but always, alone. To the plays of Dragon
Country are added Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, Lifeboat Drill,
and This Is the Peaceable Kingdom. This is an essential collection for
all students and fans of the great playwright.