As it happens, this year has been one full of excellent productions of classics. Latest is Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, by A Noise Within. My own theory, for whatever it might be worth, focuses on the times in which we are living. Art comments, questions, examines LIFE. When we do the same we find art speaks more to us, so we pay more attention.
Especially the classics, and most especially the ones who address issues of our own times.
Arthur Miller's most famous play is slightly autobiographical (a lot of them are), but what really makes it resonate remains the fact it feels autobiographical for someone we know. To some extent, also, for ourselves.
Willy Loman (Geoff Elliott) walks on stage looking exhausted beyond words. Not just physically, but down into the soul. His wife Linda (Deborah Strang) does her best to listen, to comfort, to basically help as much as she can. Along the way we soon learn this couple's two sons are staying with them for a bit. Happy (Ian Littleworth) is the son who has his own apartment but decided to visit for a day or so. Biff (David Kepner), the older son and clearly the favorite, arrived from Texas after years of farming, wandering, trying to find...something.
Clearly, this family has problems. Problems with a capital P that rhymes with C that stands for Capitalism. Willy in particular loses himself in memories, focusing on past and present hopes, ideas, fears and frustrations, his prejudices and strange blind spots. Almost immediately we get a sense of him as a man lost, a man who increasingly seems never ever to have found himself, never learned the things he desperately believes he needed. Now in his sixties, tired and confused, his career as a salesman dwindling by any metric, the man visibly is coming apart at the seams--not least his demands from others while proving himself all but incapable of listening to others.
That we don't hate this man is one of Miller's major achievements. Instead, we ache for him.
As well we should. Willy Loman is us, after all. Trapped in a world he did not choose, bereft of good options (at least any he can perceive and/or accept), without the personal resources to be more than desperate. Far too close for all our lives for comfort--and hence fascinating in way like a slow motion train wreck. Except we weep instead of gawk.
Miller wanted a play without scene breaks, and the action of the play--including memories and dreams--pretty much flow without interruption, at least in the first act. The scale feels intimate and somehow vastly deep. Unlike in classical tragedy, Willy did not make anyone personal mistake--his errors, while real, seem all very understandable, entirely human. Devastating, though. Because for all his preening about his friends and how esteemed he says he is, all the support others offer remains meager. Not individually, but cumulatively. He walks a lonely road, even when holding a wife in his arms, gazing at sons he adores who likewise adore him. Because they aren't enough. Life is bigger than any one family, no matter how close--even were they flawless and these folks show off just how human every single one of them are.
We watch a play which poses several questions, which sooner or later mostly do get answers. Exactly why is Willy in this situation? How did Biff's life fall apart so totally, and what did Willy have to do with that? Is there a way out for Willy, for Biff, for Happ or for Linda? Out of a stifling, shallow present of short-term hopes and concerns which threaten to overwhelm?
Director Julia Rodriquez-Elliott gives us an astounding theatrical experience, not least because with Scenic Designer Frederica Nascimento the "look" and "feel" of this production comes across as slightly less naturalistic, leaning more towards the dreamlike or mythic. Frankly, I will always applaud this, not least because it leans into live theatre's strengths rather than attempting to copy film or television. Likewise I want to herald the uniformly fine cast, including Kasey Mahaffy, Cassandra Marie Murphy, Bert Emmett, David Nevell, Michael Uribes, Jacob Cherry, Dominique Razon, and Rachel K. Han. From literally the very first moment when the play begins until the very final moment, I felt totally sucked in, soul and mind.
Death of a Salesman plays Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays @ 7:30 p.m., Saturdays & Sundays @ 2 p.m. until April 29, 2026 (no matiness on March 28) at A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91107 (Free parking available directly behind the theater at the Sierra Madre Villa Metro parking structure, 149 N. Halstead St.
1 comment:
Great review, very insightful
Post a Comment