Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief
February 6 - March 9 at P.S. 122

Beginning Thursday, February 6th, two-time Obie Award winning playwright Mac Wellman premieres Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief at P.S. 122. In this new solo bio-drama, Wellman runs a fifty year jaunt across American History from the Civil War to the Gilded Age through the life of Ambrose Bierce, one of America's harshest (and truest) moralists. Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief is written and directed by Mac Wellman and performed by Stephen Mellor with scenic and lighting design by Kyle Chepulis and costumes by Barb Mellor.

Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief explores the gravity, timber, and wit of Bierce's moral outrage and frustration with a fallible and hypocritical world. Taken directly from Bierce's own words, the piece includes both autobiographical writings ("What I Saw Of Shiloh") and completely fictional stories ("An Imperfect Conflagration," "Oil Of Dog"). Weaving in stories about Bierce's failed marriage and the deaths of his children, the piece highlights the parallel nature of the tragedy in Bierce's life and work.

Author, journalist and arguably the first cynic of American writing, Ambrose Bierce was born June 24, 1842 in Meigs County, Ohio. Bierce fought in and survived the Civil War. Later, he worked as a journalist in New York and London and gained attention as a writer of fiction for Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. His most famous work was the Cynics Word Book (1906), later retitled, The Devil's Dictionary (1911). He disappeared in Mexico in 1914.

Mac Wellman is a poet and playwright living in New York City. He is recipient of numerous awards, and fellowships including two Obie Awards, a Bessie Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. His plays include A Murder of Crows, Harm’s Way, Crowbar, Sincerity Forever, 7 Bowjobs, Terminal Hip, The Lesser Magoo, Tallahassee, Girl Gone at The Kitchen and The Flea, I Don’t Know Who He Was and I Don’t Know What He Said, The Damned Thing and The Sandalwood Box at LaMama, FNU LNU at Soho Rep, Catspaw at Soho Rep, Infrared at the Flea and Hypatia at Soho Rep. Recent productions include Antigone with Big Dance Theater at DTW, Anything's Dream at Muhlenberg College and at The Flea in New York, and Jennie Richie with the Ridge Theater at Arts At St. Ann's. His third novel, Q'S Q and a volume of plays, Crowtet 2, will be published by Green Integer Books in early 2003. Wellman was honored with an eponymous festival of his plays in five cities in the 1997 - 1998 season. He is a Professor of Playwriting at Brooklyn College.

Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief runs Thur. - Sun., Feb. 6 - 9 and Wed. - Sun., Feb. 12 - March 2 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15. P.S. 122 is located at 150 First Avenue at 9th St. (accessible from the #6 at Astor Place or the L at First Avenue). For reservations or more information, call 212-477-5288 or visit www.ps122.org.