Death of a Salesman

‘Death of a Salesman’ is the 1949, Pulitzer-winning play by Harlem-born Arthur Miller, and is still considered one of the great American plays of the twentieth century. It ran on Broadway for several hundred performances, and has been revived on Broadway every 15 years since. Over the years it has won, or been nominated for, around 30 Tonys and Drama Desk Awards.

Miller was born into a Polish-Jewish family, his parents being very wealthy owners of a clothing factory – until the 1929 Wall Street Crash when they lost almost everything. He was a suspect of the Un-American Activities Committee and so was refused a passport to London for the opening of his play ‘The Crucible’.

The Black Swan State Theatre Company is presenting this remarkable character study at the Heath Ledger Theatre, in the State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge.

The play is 2 hours 40 minutes long and runs nightly at 7.30 pm until the 19^th May.

It is just after the Second World War, and we find ourselves in Willy Loman's New York home.
The scene is a massive box shaped room (concept Alicia Clements). It has wood panelling three metres up the wall, but the wood is desperately in need of varnish or oiling, demonstrating the Loman’s reducing circumstances. Above that level are dirty cream coloured, plastered walls with a fine layer of blue-green mould.

The ceiling – and there is a complete ceiling – was also covered in mould, damp patches and copper piping. There was a very large industrial extractor fan near the ceiling.

Around the walls were a series of windows / door frames with blackness beyond. One ‘window’ was always the door, however, when Willy hallucinated any oblong on the wall acted as a door.  In the centre of the room is a solid oak table and chairs. At the back of the stage is an old refrigerator.
The whole effect reveals that once there was wealth, now there is poverty.

The vast volume of the area makes the main character – Willy Loman – seem, as his name suggests, an even more lowly and insignificant character.

      Willy Loman (John Stanton) is an insecure travelling salesman in his early sixties. He staggers into his Brooklyn home carrying his two sample cases. His fawning, co-dependent wife, Linda (Caroline McKenzie), rushes to help him. Although in denial, he is increasingly reliant upon his loving partner for mental and physical support. When Linda asks how his journey went, the same old answer trips off his tongue, ‘Very good, got some good sales’, swiftly followed by reservations such as ‘well, they are in the pipeline’.

      The Loman’s two sons, both in their early twenties, come into the room. Happy – a pet name for Harold (Ben O’Toole) – tells of the sexual conquests that he had the previous night, but Willy ignores him as being a waste of time, and with anger in his eyes, heads straight for the older son, Biff (Josh McConville). Biff has always been a disappointment; he failed maths and so botched getting into university. 

      All his life Biff has tried hard to please his father, but if Biff was seen to be successful then Willy felt challenged. If Biff failed, then he was a loser in his father’s eyes. Nothing he did would ever make his father care for him. To make things even worse, outspoken Biff would often ask his father searching questions, with Linda rushing to her husband’s defence.

      Biff tries to talk Hap into going west, to become a farmhand and make some easy money, but with Willy’s irrational mood swings, they are scared to leave their Mum.

      Willy has a flashback ten years to when his lads were playing football in the park, often trying to lead astray their neighbour’s nervous and nerdy son, Bernard (Eden Falk). Bernard’s father is the fun-loving Charley (Igor Sas) a kindly man, who has noticed Willy’s decline, both mentally and in wealth over the years. Charley often slips him a few dollars.

     Willy frequently has delusions of the happy days, when he was getting triple his present commission, and the boys had a future. Hallucinating, he recalls a visit from his brother Ben (Luke Hewitt), whom he worshipped and yet hardly ever saw. Willy listened in awe as Ben told him of his expeditions through jungles in search of diamonds. Willy is often seen talking to his brother when others in the room have no idea to whom he is talking.

     The salesman decides that having had a few minor crashes in his car, he needs to see his young, but very wealthy and capitalistic boss, Mr Wagner (Austin Castiglione) whom he has known since a child, and discuss his future ‘on the road’ with the possibility of now being home based.
      On the way to see his boss, Willy calls in to Charley’s office, sees his highly efficient secretary, Jenny (Adriane Daff) and thinks how Charley’s son, Bernard has become a lawyer. Willy’s attitude to Charley suddenly changes and jealousy shows through.

      The boys arrange a night out on the town to cheer up their Dad. Biff discusses a job interview. Then Hap and Biff meet the glamorous Letta (Adriane Daff) and sexy Miss Forsythe (Jo Morris) and the father’s special night soon becomes a disaster. Although Happy is responsible for the failure, Biff again gets the blame.

     Willy flashes back to the golden years and the things that he had to do to get orders, especially from Mrs Francis (Talei Howell-Price). Willy was a true Walter Mitty.

     Will Willy get a well-earned rest and overcome his anxieties and hallucinations? How will he enjoy his retirement? Will there be a family reconciliation?

The director Adam Mitchell, assisted by Eden Falk, and the main character, John Stanton, have the complex task of slowly and powerfully building up the delusions, and although some of the audience may feel that the beginning was too slow, this is designed to help form a more powerful climax. So cleverly portrayed are all of these superb and complex characters, that everyone in the audience will recognise a family member or situation.

The direction was slick, with the pace keeping you hanging on for the next episode. This is a play where even the walk-on parts are important to a scene. The accents were even and not too annoying (coach James Hagan), but occasionally Willy, when depressed or confused, was a little difficult to understand, but I am sure that this was director, Adam’s intention. The crux of the whole play is summed up at the end of the play, in the final conversation between Biff and his father. Some truly moving acting and beautiful written.

Because of the unusual concept, the lighting designer was also made the set designer (Trent Suidgeest). No lights were visible at any point of the production – Willy’s world was bland. Even the ceiling and cream walls which reached some ten metres in the air, were covered by an even dispersed soft light. The windows around the set each had powerful floods and spots, set well back into the wings this gave a wonderful effect as the characters moved around the stage, and again were totally hidden. The lighting for the front of the stage was set low at almost eye level. The whole conception was unique and extremely well presented. There is an amazingly powerful effect near the end of the play which was truly threatening. Ben Collins background rumbles and double bass work whispered in the background at various dramatic points in the play, but at this climax approached the volume and overall effect was magnificent. There were points when Willy’s hallucinations were highly echoed as the characters drifted in and out of his vision. Superb teamwork.

The costumes were superbly tailored (designer Lynn Ferguson), ranging from the stunning gown of Miss Forsythe to the wild plus-fours of Bernard, which raised a laugh.

The magnificent acting had you genuinely feeling for each family member in turn. You could understand their plight and like each one, could not think of a way out or any possible light at the end of the tunnel.

Truly one of America’s greatest plays presented with flair.