Death of a Salesman

Beth Marshall and David Hayman in Death of a Salesman. Image Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

****

There’s challenges in presenting a classic play. Including emotional balance and whether to place thematic stresses emphasising key points over others. All of which impacts on performance. As is the case with the current production of Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic, Death of a Salesman currently at The Gaiety, a memory play revolving around the final twenty-four hours in the life of travelling salesman, Willie Loman. A play in which Miller’s towering talent was rarely more in evidence. The same likely to be said of David Hayman, who delivers a devastating performance as the iconic Willie. Which, under director Andy Arnold, highlights key aspects of Miller's devoted family man trapped in the long con of American exceptionalism; achieving richer emotional resonance at the cost of wider emotional range. Arnold’s version looking uncomfortably close given the current political climate.

Daniel Cahill, David Hayman and Michael Wallace in Death of a Salesman. Image Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

From the outset, Arnold nails his colours to the mast. Neil Haynes simple set dominated by an image of a giant tree imprisoned behind the bars of some wooden fire escapes. Nature and the city one of many juxtapositions that run throughout Miller’s script, along with the real and the imagined, the dream and the lived experience, the truth and the lie. Seats stage left and right with actors sitting between scenes, some doubling as live musicians, add a touch of Brechtian distance, ensuring you never forget you're watching a performance. A strong choice that undermines any realist temptation to become immersed in the spectacle. Into which a diminutive Willie enters loaded down with two burdensome suitcases. A shabby, hollowed out, shell of a man whose mind is beginning to go. His enabling wife making excuses to him as to why. A legend in his own mind, Willie espouses not so much the American Dream as the quick fix way to get it. The cult of personality which forgives all forms of cheating and stealing if you’re liked enough. Traits inherited by his sons, Biff, now a rambling bum, and Lucky, a philandering dreamer with the same dead end dreams. One last ditch attempt to turn their lives around reveals you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Even as insanity is repeating the same old, same old and hoping for a different outcome. Ensuring the ending is as inevitable as it is tragic.

Benny Young and David Hayman in Death of a Salesman. Image Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

With Hayman and Arnold opting to foreground tragedy, Willie is portrayed with a tragic flaw rather than as a man trapped in a game he was destined to loose. His flaw being he’s a naked fool proclaiming himself emperor, opening up rich interpretive possibilities in terms of masculine interrogations. Willie less someone playing with loaded dice so much as a man trying to load the dice. The game of success he believes he can rig already rigged long before by others. Willie’s demise into madness, loneliness, frailty and humiliation brought viscerally alive in Hayman’s stunning performance. Even as it leaves Willie’s arrogance and anger too softly spoken. Sacrificing swagger and front for an enduring sense of fraility and failure, it can be hard to understand Biff and Lucky’s devotion. Even more his wife Linda’s admiration and his neighbour Charley’s endless generosity, even as both see through Willie’s lies. Beth Marshall’s enabling Linda, Daniel Cahill's conflicted Biff, Michael Wallace’s devoted Happy and Benny Young’s tolerant Charley each turning in impeccable performances. Gavin John Wright, Simon Donaldson, Charlene Boyd, Stewart Ennis, Fay Guiffo, Bailey Newsome and Gillian Massey rounding out an impressive cast.

David Hayman in Death of a Salesman. Image Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

A jaded man in a jaded suit, who made it to the finish line only to lose the race, Hayman’s Willie is to be pitied more than reviled. Hayman wrenching every last drop of pathos in a powerfully moving performance. A terrific production of a terrific play, not everyone will agree with all the choices made. But Death of a Salesman is a startlingly brilliant, modern classic, given quality treatment in this powerhouse production.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, presented by Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Raw Material, runs at The Gaiety Theatre until April 19.

For more information visit The Gaiety Theatre