Royal
Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
28th
March, 2015*
*Please note that
this was a preview performance
Following the success of the Young Vic’s A View from the Bridge and the Old Vic’s The Crucible last year, Gregory Doran marks Arthur Miller’s
centenary with his staging of, arguably, the playwright’s most celebrated play.
This absorbing production plays with space and time, paying tribute to Miller’s
original, fastidious directorial notes.
Salesman is remarkable for
Miller’s strict stage directions, specifically the use of space in locating
time and reality which is central to the understanding of Willy Loman’s tragedy.
The trajectory through Willy’s idealised past and disillusioned present is
fluid and greatly facilitated by Stephen Brimson Lewis’s design and Tim
Mitchell’s lighting. The contrast between the romanticised past and the
suffocating present of the up-built city is spatially conveyed by vast
billboard style apartment blocks, dwarfing the Loman’s tiny wooden house. The
set changes giving an added sense of the bustling city as the running crew,
dressed as city-dwellers, swiftly move pieces around amidst a heady steam
issuing from subway grates. Constructed from translucent materials, the set
works alongside subtle lighting changes in which the once solid presence of the
surrounding tower blocks are transformed by a sun-dappled hue, almost
disappearing as Willy transgresses, moving downstage into the free space
accompanied by the symbolic pastoral flute leitmotif – the live music
contributing a vibrancy that recordings cannot reproduce. Interactions and
dialogue run seamlessly into one another just as the boundaries of the playing
space are discarded during Willy’s transgressions. Distinctions between time
and space are simultaneously hazy and clear; blurring the lines between time
and space, a contradiction which highlights the melancholy and ultimately
maddening contradictory and illusive nature of memory.
The performances are generally good; Harriet Walter as the loving,
put-upon Linda, and Alex Hassell’s lost and conflicted Biff are among the
standouts. Antony Sher gives an all encompassing performance as Willy,
fluctuating between humour and pathos with ease, the measured rhythm of his
speech allowing every syllable to be heard and considered. This is a play where
no line or moment is superfluous, despite the apparent superfluity of the
modern American salesman. The scenes within the Loman house are particularly
absorbing in their intimacy, creating a feeling of being in the room with the
characters, no mean feat in a large theatre. Moments where direction,
performance, lighting and music all work beautifully together create points of
lucidity, particularly towards the end of the play and the build up to the
climax, proving that a decades old play, performed countless times over the
years, still has the ability to move audiences.
Miller’s Salesman seems to be
ingrained in the minds of many not only as a pinnacle of the modern tragic
genre, but as a piece of contemporary American social commentary and,
consequently, Doran’s production plays out exactly as one would expect, and
want, such a classic to do so. Doran takes no risks with the material, save a
slight shift in staging which the RST thrust stage needs must accommodate. The
placing of Miller’s text at heart, being performed well by a reliable cast, is
a very solid and respectable way to celebrate one hundred years of one of the
great American dramatists.
Death of a
Salesman plays
at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 2nd May, 2015.
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