BWW Reviews: Abrahamse & Meyer's ONE ARM a Winning Adaptation of Tennessee Williams Short Story

Abrahamse & Meyer Productions are back at the Artscape Arena with ONE ARM, the company's latest exploration of the work of Tennessee Williams and the first of which is a new adaptation of a non-theatrical work by the iconic playwright and author. Originally a brief short story, this is not the first stage adaptation of "One Arm": in 2011, Moisés Kaufman adapted and directed ONE ARM for the New Group. Both adaptations make use of the short story itself as well as the screenplay that Williams himself wrote in his attempt to have the story adapted for film. While some key scenes in the two respective adaptations are almost identical in word, there are significant differences in both the approach to the adaptation and in the style of the two productions. This production aims takes a more lyrical approach than Kaufman's, embracing Williams' idea of what he called a 'plastic theatre' that eschewed the conventions of realist drama and embraced the poetry and symbolism that the theatre could embody.

ONE ARM introduces a series of characters that, for various reasons, exist on the edge of accepted society. Linking them all together is Oliver Winemiller, a prisoner on death row who once was a naval boxer but who resorted to prostitution following a car accident that left him with only one arm. His story and those of the figures whose lives he touches are presented to the audience from the perspective of a young Lutheran minister who visits Oliver the day before his execution. The catalyst for the action that takes place during the young minister's visit is a bundle of letters sent to Oliver by his many acquaintances, in which they express what he has meant to them - revelations that have brought Oliver to a moment where he faces the possibility of some kind of redemption as he approaches his unavoidable fate.

Presented through layers of narration that link together several crucial turning points in Oliver's life, Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer's adaption stays within the borders of the world created by Williams for the original short story, as opposed to Kaufman's which largely worked with the new material that Williams introduced into his screenplay. Some of the late 1960s sensibilities of the script still seem to penetrate the Abrahamse-Meyer adaptation though, the most telling being a conversation in which Oliver, when speaking to one of his tricks, says, 'All of you queers - excuse me, I mean gay guys - are artistic in some way.' Although the use of the word 'gay' to refer to homosexuals was in use in American slang from the 1920s, it only really began its semantic transition into popular usage in psychological observations in the 1940s with the word only shifting into mainstream usage during the 1950s. Even given that timeline, the use of such meta-lingual awareness from Oliver feels out of place in a setting that seems to retain at its core the Second World War milieu of the original short story, although the brief appearance of "Orange Coloured Sky" in the production might indicate the adoption of a mid-century setting. It is in minor details like these where this adaptation still needs further refinement, ironing out the creases in what is overall a winning adaptation of the material.

The performances in ONE ARM by Meyer, as Ollie, and Nicholas Dallas, in the balance of the roles, represent some solid acting. The physical characterisation from both actors, especially Dallas as he shifts from character to character, is exemplary, but more robust vocal work is required, particularly when it comes to the specificity of and differentiation between accents. There also remains a slight suggestion of tension around their work, a safety catch that holds the piece back from being the transcendent gut-punch it should be.

The focus of Abrahamse's direction of ONE ARM is on the creation of a stark present world that is penetrated and shaped by memory. His work is fluid, giving the piece a dreamlike quality as it moves from image to image and scene to scene. Abrahamse's scenic design for the piece aids the realisation of this dreamscape, and is the most beautiful and coherent landscape that he has fashioned in his recent run of Williams plays. With the action playing in front of translucent, but not quite opaque, white drops, there is a constant a sense of shadows in the distance when Dallas disappears behind them to change costumes. The black floor beneath is broken only by snippets of writing that represent the words that have come to mean so much to Ollie during his sentence. Only four simple chairs are moved through the space to create the various settings depicted in the play, which are otherwise evoked through the use of subtle lighting transitions and through the soundscape composed by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder for the production, which helps in no small way to establish the rhythm of the production, as well as its tone and mood. Meyer's costumes, suggestive for Ollie who has to shift in space and time from scene to scene and more detailed for those roles played by Dallas, beautifully capture period and character.

ONE ARM comes close to being a consummately satisfying adaptation of its source material and may yet become one if it deals with the devil in the details. As the two actors' performances settle into Abrahamse's atmospheric production, the theatrical experience of the play might also reach heights it does not yet attain. Close to the end of the short story, Williams says of the minister: 'He had to be lifted and half carried down the corridor and before he had reached the end of it, he started to retch as if his whole insides were being torn out.' That sentence encapsulates, for me, the way the audience should feel as the lights fade to black and this production of ONE ARM had not yet achieved that degree of catharsis on opening day, although it certainly has the potential to do so.

ONE ARM runs at the Artscape Arena until 14 September. Tickets cost R150, with a two "2 for the price of 1" specials on 8 September. Bookings can be made through Computicket.

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