Message still clear in polished production
‘‘PERSONALITY always wins the day,’’ says archetypal salesman Willy Loman.
But, in Arthur Miller’s Brooklyn tragedy, Death of a Salesman, it doesn’t.
Willy is guided by a conventional dream of success that involves smiles and shoeshines, believing in yourself and being universally liked, and leads to wealth, respectability and a paidoff mortgage.
If the dream also requires humiliation, grovelling, cornercutting, misrepresentation and elaborate layers of selfdelusion, then so be it.
The Globe’s production, directed by Paul Ellicott, is faithful to Miller’s script, while suggesting that its message resonates beyond the consumerist postwar period when the play was written.
A functional set, designed and built by Ray Fleury and Don Vialle, works with lighting design by Brian Byas and costumes coordinated by Sofie Welvaert to present a stylish, almost monochromatic setting, well complemented by apt but unobtrusive sound design by Craig Storey.
All 12 performers reach high standards and Storey, in the demanding role of Willy, is exceptional. His presentation of Willy’s volatile, essentially hollow personality is nuanced, sensitive and powerful.
Kay Masters, as wife Linda, captures the dreariness of a life spent loyally appeasing Willy and his many needs while managing payments on cheap household goods that never last until they are paid for.
Special mention must also be made of Brook Bray’s strong portrayal of Willy’s son Biff, tormented by disgust and his own sense of inadequacy, comprehending the fraudulence of Willy’s vision but finding himself unable to, as he says, ‘‘take hold of some kind of a life’’.
Ellicott’s production is intelligent, polished, and a splendid beginning to the Globe’s 2019 season.
It isn’t always an easy play for the audience — reality and memory overlap, and shifting time periods, although well staged, require a certain amount of concentration.
It’s long, more than three hours, yet on Thursday night it held the nearcapacity audience’s attention throughout.
Enthusiastically recommended.