ONE ARM

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, ADAPTED BY MOISES KAUFMAN | SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE

“I been all over this country and gotten to know many people.
I’ve forgotten most of ‘em but they’ve remembered me”

Exterior. New Orleans. Night. Close up: A beautiful young hustler solicits trade on the streets. He is Ollie Olsen, former light heavyweight champion of the Pacific Fleet.

After a devastating accident ends his boxing career Ollie believes his once-invincible body to be irreparably broken. When his eyes are opened to the market value of his tragic beauty, Ollie turns to selling his final asset in order to survive. Through his encounters with the lonely souls of 1940s America, Ollie discovers an unexpected chance for redemption.

In 1942 Tennessee Williams wrote One Arm, a short story with a striking central character who haunted his imagination for the rest of his life. Williams revisited Ollie’s story 25 years later in a screenplay of the same title – a script too provocative for the studios of 60s Hollywood. Moisés Kaufman, creator of The Laramie Project, fuses these texts into a powerful theatrical work inspired by the movie that was never made.

The UK premiere of One Arm by Tennessee Williams, adapted for the stage by Moisés Kaufman, played at Southwark Playhouse from 10 June - 4 July 2015.

Directed by Josh Seymour, with set and costume design by Alistair Turner, lighting design by Joshua Pharo, sound design by Helen Atkinson and casting by Gabriella Shimeld-Fenn.

Photography: Alex Brenner