Death of a Salesman

By Robert Iles - 17th May 2005

Death of a Salesman is a beautifully constructed play that tells the tale of a travelling salesman who never quite made anything of himself as he nears the end of his career. The salesman in him is so strong that he has over-sold himself and his family so that each of his sons has grown uo believing that they are the supermen he keeps telling them they are, or more correctly, keeps telling himself. His son Biff's failure to make anything of himself he puts down to spite, but actually Biff finds he is happy with the life of a cowhand - what makes him unhappy, and what creates the core tensions of the play, is trying to live expectations he can never achieve.

As the play progresses, the lives we are introduced to start to unpeel and we learn the real truth of these sad, struggling but ultimately good people who cannot see themselves for what they really are - middle ranking.

This is quite a long play, complicated by flashback, views into people's thoughts, short scenes and location changes. The staging could easily interfere with our needs to listen to the stories and language as they unfold before us but in this production everything is superbly balanced. The whole design supports and promotes the plays journey without ever (except for that squeak as they walk in the garden!) distracting us.

As to the performances .. the whole of the core cast are trully spot on. Brian Dennehy is Willy Loman, I shall never be able to see another! Clare Higgens gives a strong and heart rending Linda and I found Douglas Henshall's Biff never less than riveting and Howard Witt's Charley a masterpiece in underplayed and beautifully timed performance. Mark Bazeley as Happy and Jonathan Aris as Bernard kept up the high quality though I felt that some of the minor roles were delivered with less convition than I would have liked.

Robert Falls is to be heartily congratulated on bringing a memorable production to the Lyric ... thank you

Robert Iles