[NEohioPAL]Berko review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN (Actors' Summit)

[Roy Berko]

ACTORS’ SUMMIT DOES A GOOD JOB OF SELLING A MILLER
CLASSIC

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

Cleveland has become an Arthur Miller kind of town! 
Running concurrently are the master playwright’s THE
PRICE (Ensemble Theatre) and THE DEATH OF A SALESMAN
(Actors’ Summit).  And, to the pleasure of local
theatre-goers, both productions are excellent!

Arthur Miller, who died in 2005 at the age of 89, is
considered to be one of America’s greatest modern
playwrights.  He authored many highly regarded works
including  ‘THE CRUCIBLE,’ ‘A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE’
and ‘ALL MY SONS.’

Many consider his greatest work to be ‘DEATH OF A
SALESMAN,’ which premiered on Broadway on February 10,
1949, starring Lee J. Cobb.  The play won a Tony
Award, a New York Drama Critics' Award and a Pulitzer
Prize.  It was the first play ever to win all three of
those awards. 

Miller, who continued in his writing to probe, “Is
this the best way to live,” features that theme in
Salesman, which by most counts is the most studied
American play in high schools and colleges.

The plot centers on Willy Loman, a salesman who has
spent his whole life “way out there in the blue,
riding on a smile and a shoeshine,” proud of his
ability to sell anything to anyone and to provide for
his family.  In reality, this is a dream of the
reality...he is not successful, nor well liked, nor
providing for his family.  As the play unfolds, he
loses his job, the respect of his sons, and finally,
his hope.  He finds himself  needing to face reality,
but unable to do so.    

Miller uses flashbacks to create a stream of conscious
to illustrate Willy’s lack of reality.  He is a modern
day tragic hero, whose flaws lead to his destruction. 
He dies, as he has lived, by creating a false
illusion.  Is this the best way to live?

The play takes place in a small house in Brooklyn. 
Originally in the country, the home in the play is now
surrounded by high-rise buildings.  The house really
exists.  The Miller family lived there.  Ironically,
it is around the corner from my aunt and uncle’s
apartment and, when I visited them, I would walk over
to see the residence, and realized that it, much like
Willy, was overwhelmed and lost by the reality of the
world which surrounds it.

Actors’ Summit’s production, under the direction of
Alex Cikra is quite good.  Though a little slow in
places, the play’s intent is clear.

A. Neil Thackaberry, coming off an amazing performance
in Actors’ Summit’s ‘QED,’ gives Willy the right
physical and emotional dimensions.  Here is a
stoop-shouldered hunk of a man who walks as if
defeated, weighted down by not only his salesman’s
valises, but by his self-created delusions. 
Interestingly, Thackaberry’s occasional stumbling over
lines adds to the chaos in the character’s mind.

Paula Duesing does well as Linda, Willy’s brow-beaten
enabler wife.  One of her two major speeches is
outstanding.  Known as the “respect must be paid”
soliloquy, in which she summarizes Willy as an
undistinguished man whose name will never appear in a
newspaper, Duesing is emotionally right on target. 
Unfortunately, the final speech, the requiem, when
Linda states that she is unable to cry and questions
why, now that “We’re free and clear” Willy has killed
himself, lacks the emotional gut-shaking reality that
is needed to close the curtain on Willy’s delusions.

This production, however, belongs to Nick Koesters as
Biff, the only Loman capable of finally realizing that
he is not the superstar that Willy has dreamt up. 
Koesters is outstanding.  In the scene in which he
finds out the truth about his philandering father, his
body sags, his eyes well, his lips tremble, the life
goes out of his eyes as his world crashes down. 
Bravo!

John Galbraith is fine as the clueless Hap, the other
son, who is well on his way to becoming another Willy.

Cikra’s decision to multi-cast Marc Moritz as five
different people is questionable.  Though Moritz is
excellent, several scenes lose their focus because
Moritz is forced to literally play two people at once.

The set does more to distract than enhance the
production.  Not using see-through walls, which Miller
meticulously describes in the play’s notes, distracts
from our ability to separate Willy’s realities from
his illusions.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN’ is a
brilliant play.  Actors’ Summit generally does a fine
job of showcasing this important work.  

‘QED’ runs though January 28 at Actors’ Summit, 86
Owen Brown Street, Hudson.  Call for tickets now at
330-342-0800


Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2002 through 2007, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info
      
Roy's theatre and dance reviews appear regularly on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.  His dance reviews also appear on www.coolcleveland.com


 
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