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Unravelling of the American dream
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Bridewell Theatre
ARTHUR Miller who wrote this play in 1949, declared that “one of the impulses behind Death Of A Salesman was to carry the whole freight of a man’s life.”
Willy Loman, the cantankerous salesman finds his world and his mind unravelling.
He cannot touch the things he’s worked for and there is little understanding between him and his sons, Biff and Happy.
All he wishes is to leave a legacy for them, a thumbprint, but he has nothing to offer them, financially or emotionally.
The down payments on the fridge, the car and the washing machine, the commodities which constitute “happiness” weigh down on Willy.
When it becomes too much, he relies on his sons but cannot handle that they, especially Biff, will not share his dream.
Biff tries to dispel his father’s fantasies but this pushes Willy over the edge.
“A man is worth more dead than alive”, says Willy, when weighing up his life insurance.
In the end, the American dream proves too far away for Willy to reach and Biff doesn’t want it. All he wants is to be free.
The layered set, one room sitting on top of another, mirrors Willy’s confused state of mind, where the past floods over the present, and the two often run side by side.
Then, walls disappear and characters from the past walk around freely, only to be seen and heard by Willy.
The American dream, the promise of so much, doesn’t come cheap – and sometimes it doesn’t arrive at all.
Until March 3
020 7226 5111 |
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