Kelly is an instructor of literature and creative writing at two schools in the Chicago area. In the following essay, he considers the outdated attitudes in The Teahouse of the August Moon and considers whether there is an appropriate lesson for contemporary audiences to learn from the play.

Every time a revival of John Patrick's 1952 service comedy Teahouse of the August Moon is suggested, me question arises about whether it has filially outlived its relevance. The story is packed with attitudes and actions that fall on a scale ranging from old-fashioned and quaint to flat-out offensive, depending on how charitable a viewer cares to be. It is a play about one culture's domination over another. Even though the dominators act with what they feel to be the best intentions, and the occupied people of post-war Okinawa do not mind the American presence, still the world has come...