Saturday 21 - Saturday 28 June 7:45pm. Matinee Saturday 28 June 2:45pm.
In the spring of 1948, Arthur Miller retreated to a log cabin in Connecticut USA with the first two lines of a new play already fixed in his mind. He emerged six weeks later with the final script of Death of a Salesman – a painful examination of American life and consumerism. Opening on Broadway the following year, Miller’s extraordinary masterpiece changed the course of modern theatre. In creating Willy Loman, his destructively insecure anti-hero, Miller defined his aim as being ‘to set forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life’.
Willy Loman is an ageing travelling salesman. With each trip, he’s finding it increasingly difficult to cover his territory in search of the next big order. While Willy still believes his charm and optimism will make him rich, he is haunted by the realities of life. As Willy turns to his memories and delusions to combat any feelings of failure, he begins to lose touch with reality.
While Death of a Salesman may appear – on the surface – to be the story of one man and his family, it also tells a larger story about what it means to live in a society that promises a lot but guarantees nothing. It’s a play about the struggle for success and disappointment of the American Dream.
‘A tragedy of the common man’, Death of a Salesman is considered one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1949, it remains a classic work of literature and drama that is studied and performed around the world.