Welded

Playwright: Eugene O’Neill

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Direction: Fred Abrahamse

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Design: Marcel Meyer & Fred Abrahamse

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Photography: Ride Hamilton

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Cast: Jody O’Neil and Andrew Clemons

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Venue: Governor Bradford, Provincetown.

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Date: September 2016.

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About: Presented at the 2016 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival. The theme for the 2016 Festival was Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill: Beyond Success. The Festival marked the centennial of O’Neill’s first produced play in Provincetown in 1916. Welded [Act 2 scene 2] was presented on a double-bill with Tennessee Williams’ one-act A Perfect Analysis Given By A Parrot. The double-bill contrasted the two playwrights approach to “good-time girls”. The play was written by O’Neill in 1924 and was poorly received, running for only 24 performances at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City. In Welded [Act 2 Scene 2] an intense young playwright stumbles across the body-wisdom of an immigrant prostitute.

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What the Press Said:

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“Abrahamse and Meyer also brought Williams’ A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot, paired with a scene recast from O’Neill’s Welded. In both plays, “good time girls,” revealed as sensitive and wise, are played in drag. From feathered boas and trash talk to an illuminating vision of an overlooked O’Neill, this yin-yang duo was perfect Provincetown” – PROVINCETOWN BANNER

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“Jody O’Neil played the Woman without a trace of camp, full of the shame and pride that the character demands. I was curious about the choice to see the Woman played by a man in drag, and honestly grateful for it” – HUFFINGTON POST