Review: Death of a Salesman (Pavillion Theatre)

Another Week, Another Arthur Miller

It does feel rather pointed. In the six-plus years that I have lived in Glasgow, the city hasn’t played host to any plays by Arthur Miller, one of the important playwrights of the 20th Century. This month, we had two open in as many weeks. One is Death of a Salesman, a touring production by Raw Material directed by Andy Arnold. The other is A View from the Bridge, the directorial debut of Jemima Levick, Arnold’s successor as Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre. It is unlikely to be anything more than coincidence, but it is curious to see where each one struggles and succeeds.

David Hayman plays Willy Loman, a travelling salesman whose relationships with his sons have gone adrift as each struggles to find success and purpose. Through flashbacks, we see that when Biff (Daniel Cahill) and Happy (Michael Wallace) were boys on the brink of graduating high school Willy was content, if lonely, but most importantly he was “well-liked”. The confidence of Willy’s former years is but a shadow in Hayman’s eyes. He plays Loman as small and breakable, carrying a burdensome and outdated philosophy on manhood. It is as heartbreaking as it is pitiful.

Photo Credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Beth Marshall plays his wife Linda as strong and silent, a noticeable presence in every scene she is in even when the men in the room ignore her. Cahill gives an equally strong performance as Biff, a character who seems constantly on the brink of an argument yet with whom we can still empathise. The rest of the supporting cast all have their moments, but the small band assembled of cast members feels underutilised to the point of redundancy. The stage is mostly bare except for some fire escapes against the wings and an inexplicably large backdrop of a tree against a bare blue sky. If it weren’t for the New York accents you would be forgiven for wondering where it was set.

Despite a sluggish final scene, Death of a Salesman justifies its lengthy run time on the back of its performances and the persistent relevance of its writing. One of Levick’s priorities when staging A View from the Bridge was to reflect modern concerns of masculinity, and I said in my review that I don’t think she succeeded in that. Although Arnold arguably has an easier job staging a more popular play, the depiction of male loneliness, ego, and unattainable ambitions makes this Miller performance impressive and important on its own merit. Four stars.

Death of a Salesman has completed its run at Pavillion Theatre, and will be touring until the 3rd of May