PACIFIC OVERTURES SYNOPSIS
Act I (1853)
The Reciter is seen kneeling in front of a boldly patterned show curtain, his head touching the floor in prayer. Heexplains that since foreigners were driven from the island empire nothing has threatened the changeless cycle of its days. Elsewhere, wars are fought and machines are rumbling but in Nippon they plant rice, exchange bows and enjoy peace and serenity. The curtain is removed and the company joins the Reciter in extolling “The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea”, introducing the quality of life in 1853 Japan. The Japanese wish only to maintain their sacred isolation.
The Reciter introduces a scene at the court of the Shogun, who rules Japan in the name of the one-year-old Emperor. The Shogun’s councillors have gathered to deal with a Japanese prisoner in Western dress, Manjiro, a fisherman. Manjiro was shipwrecked at 14, rescued by an American ship and taken “to a place called Massachusetts”, where he was educated. Some years later, he has returned to forewarn his countrymen of the oncoming expedition of four American warships. (President of the United States Fillmore, having determined to open up trade with Japan, has sent Commodore Matthew Perry across the Pacific.)
The Shogun’s chief councillor, Lord Abe, decides on a plan to fend off the visit. He appoints a samurai of little consequence, Kayama, as Prefect of the Police at Uraga, charged with the duty of meeting the intruders, informing them of the sacred decree that no foreigner may set foot on Japan’s holy soil.
Fully aware of his slim chance for success, Kayama resigns himself to his fate, returning home to prepare and to inform his wife, Tamate, of his situation. As Tamate expresses herself in silent movement, Two Observers appear onstage, one to sing about her and the other to sing her words and thoughts ("There Is No Other Way").
An enormous bell descends, sending out the alarm signalling the sighting of the American ships ("Four Black Dragons"). Panic spreads, climaxed by the materialisation of Commodore Perry’s massive flagship, a menacing man-of-war inan extravagant oriental caricature* of the USS Powhatan. Commodore Perry tells Kayama – and Manjiro, sent because of his experience with Americans - that he must meet the Shogun himself within six days to present a treaty for signature or else he will “blow Uraga off the face of the earth”.
The indecisive Shogun takes to his bed. Exasperated, his Mother, with elaborate courtesy, poisons him with "Chrysanthemum Tea."
Kayama and Manjiro present a plan by which the Americans, thanks to a covering of tatami mats and a raised Treaty House, can be received at Kanagawa without havingtechnically set foot on Japanese soil. Kayama, promoted to Governor of Uraga, and Manjiro, made his aide, set off for Uraga, forging a band of friendship through the exchange of "Poems". On arriving home, Kayama discovers that Tamate has committed suicide.
Events are, however, moving beyond the control of the old order: the two men pass a madam instructing four young girls in the art of seduction as they prepare to welcome the Americans ("Welcome to Kanagawa").
Commodore Perry and his men come ashore and, on their "March to the Treaty House", demonstrate their goodwill by offering such gifts as two bags of Irish potatoes and a copy of Owen's Geology of Minnesota. Just as the Reciter is informing us that there is no Japanese record of what transpired, an old man interrupts: “Pardon me. I was there.” As a child he had spied on the proceedings from a hidden vantage point up in a tree. The Japanese also had a warrior hidden underneath the floorboards ready to attack in the event of American treachery. Each delivers his version of events (“Someone In a Tree").
The Americans depart in peace; the Japanese dismantle the Treaty House, careful not to let the contaminated surfaces touch the soil.In a traditional Kabuki lion dance, the lion embodies evil in the character of Commodore Perry, ending in a strutting, triumphalist, all-American cakewalk.
Act II (1854 - 1976)
Act II opens in the imperial court of the Emperor in Kyoto. The Emperor (in the form of a puppet) sits on an elevated platform. The court conducts a ceremony to formally acknowledge Lord Abe, Kayama and Manjiro as the saviors of Japan and to reward Manjiro by elevating him to the rank of samurai. A priest declaims: “The Emperor smiles upon his loyal subjects and permits them to depart – secure in the knowledge that the barbarian threat has forever been removed.
To the surprise of Lord Abe, the new Shogun, an American admiral returns, welcoming himself with "Please Hello"* and to request formal trading arrangements. He is quickly followed by a Gilbert-and-Sullivan British Admiral, a clog-dancing Dutch Admiral, a gloomy Russian and an Offenbach Frenchman,each vying, with increasing threats, for preferential access to Japan's markets.
Coastal towns are penetrated by foreign merchants. Businessmen come to Japan to set up factories.
Manjiro continues to dress in ceremonial robes for the tea ritual, while Kayama is adopting the manners and dress of the newcomers, proudly displaying his new pocket watch, cutaway coat and "A Bowler Hat". By the end of the number the two have become entirely different: Kayama the energetic, Westernised official, Manjiro the doggedly traditional samurai.
Other, less pleasant changes, are prompted by westernisation. Three British Sailors mistake a "Pretty Lady" in a garden for a geisha. The girl cries for help and her father kills one of the sailors with his sword. The Shogun and Kayama discuss the political ramifications. Suddenly they are set upon by a raiding party of samurai sent by the Lords of the South, advocates of a movement to save Japan by expelling the barbarians. The Shogun is assassinated. All flee except Kayama and a lone conspirator. It is Manjiro. He kills Kayama.
The Lords of the South enter carrying the Emperor (now a life-sized puppet). The Lords hail Manjiro’s actions, but they are cut short by the Emperor, who comes to life and pronounces that from this point forward he will speak for himself. Discarding his sacred robes, he emerges in a regal Western-style military uniform. He proclaims that in the name of progress, the Japanese people must renounce their ancient ways and devote themselves to arriving at the day “when the Western powers will acknowledge us as their undisputed equals.”
With this resolution, the onstage scene is catapulted into 1976, with the entire company in western dress frenetically singing, dancing and celebrating Japan’s amazing progress ("Next!"). The Reciter’s imperial robes are removed layer by layer to show him in T-shirt and black trousers. Contemporary Japan assembles itself around him. "There was a time when foreigners were not welcome here. But that was long ago," he says. "Welcome to Japan."
* Examples of the original conception of Pacific Overturesas a “historical narrative as written by a Japanese who's seen a lot of American musicals" (Sondheim, Finishing the Hat, p. 323a).
adapted from Wikipedia, 5 April 2011 and William H. Evans’s sleeve notes to the original Broadway production
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