Following a brief preview period, Abrahamse & Meyer Productions celebrate the official opening of their production of ONE ARM, a brand new adaptation of the Tennessee Williams short story by Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer, with a series of photographs taken by legendary theatre photographer, Pat Bromilow Downing. Check out the production shots below!
ONE ARM tell the tale of an aspiring boxer who loses his arm in a car accident and turns to prostitution for a living. The young hustler violently murders a client and is sentenced to death for this crime. On death row, he receives hundreds of letters from former clients explaining how deeply he touched their lives. Explicit and daring, ONE ARM gives a graphic account of the homosexual underworld during 1940s while at the same time being a poignant portrait of a mutilated body and soul.
Abrahamse and Meyer have adapted ONE ARM as a tour-de-force for two actors focusing on the central relationship between the convicted hustler and a young Lutheran minister who visits him on death row. Picking up on the themes of voyeurism, exhibitionism and paraphilia which Williams wove into the story, the stage adaptation employs erotic fetishism and sexual role-play as a major dramatic device in the play, by having the young Lutheran minister act out all the various characters in mutilated boxer's life-story.
Meyer himself plays Oliver Winemiller, the boxer turned hustler with
Nicholas Dallas as the young Lutheran minister. Meyer has received international accolades as a Williams leading man impressing with his brooding performance as Chicken in KINGDOM OF EART as well as his sensitive reading of the Angel of Death in THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE, while Dallas won acclaimed for his performance of the Witch of Capri in THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE and for his intense performance as Lot in KINGDOM OF EARTH.
The multi award-winning Abrahamse is responsible for the direction as well as the set and lighting design. Abrahamse has garnered a reputation as a leading director of the Williams reparatory with acclaimed productions of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, KINGDOM OF EARTH and THE MILK TRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE. A musical score for the production has been created by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder.
ONE ARM represents Williams at his most provocative and hard-hitting and a must-see for all serious theatre-lovers. ONE ARM will run at the Artscape Arena until 14 September, with tickets available through
Computicket.
Photo credit: Pat Bromilow-Downing
