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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Death Of A Salesman.
The invited director John Dove casts his production with actors of varying degrees of experience and background but they all bring fully realized characters to the Lyceum stage. First to catch my eye on opening night was Paul Jesson's weary beyond reason Willy Loman, the Salesman in whose mind much of the play takes form. He is close to collapse, and in one day and two nights of his life we range over his times as a salesman, a Dad and husband. Taking time to unfold the many shifts in the play where, to Willy the past calls and speaks to him as vividly as the present, the pace of the production lets us enter "Inside His Head", the original title of the play. It's hard to pick particular actors out in such a well balanced cast but Alex Hassell's Happy and Steven Duffy's Biff let us see all the nuances of the youthful boys and the men they become. Happy is a skillful mover in the whole world of illusion Willy tried to give them both. Biff comes to the point where he knows who he really is and how he must find a different way to survive. Duffy really makes Biff's showdown scene with his father tell. Always trying to hold the family together, a tough task in a family that has never spoken the truth to each other, is Linda, played with a deep, meaningful restraint by Joanna Tope. These central performances and those of the rest of the company ensure all the themes of the play, and its extraordinary structure, empower its impact. In this fearful, awesome package the audience find the realities of life in the US of the late forties paralleled by our own lives in Britain now. Today parents too often try to set out their children-turning-into-adult lives, wrestle with the toughness of just being a little cog in a world that doesn't value you as an individual, all fanned and deluded by false dreams we frequently chase using more and more credit. Ironic laughter confirms our recognition of Willy and Linda, finally paying off their mortgage on a house, now overshadowed by a high-rise neighborhood and too big for just the two of them. Miller's indictment of the American dream and families who refuse to be honest with themselves in Dove's production has us facing our own lives chastened. It's great theatre, about far from great lives. © Thelma Good 7 February 2004. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast: Willy Loman - Paul Jesson, Linda Loman - Joanna Tope, Biff Loman - Steven Duffy, Happy Alex Hassell, Bernard - Jim Webster, The Woman - Isabella Jarrett, Letta/Jenny - Katrina Bryan, Charley - Tony Boncza, Uncle Ben - Sandy Neilson, Howard/Stanley and Miss Forsythe - Luch Paterson. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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