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Posts Tagged ‘Arthur Miller’

The Crucible

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

This modern classic isn’t produced that often, probably because it requires the resources only a big theatre company can marshal, though it was seen in London three times in relatively quick succession between 2010 and 2016, at The Open Air Theatre, The Old Vic & The RSC, all great productions. Though it’s about the 1692 Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller wrote it as an allegory for the McCarthy Un-American Activities Committee, which he defied shortly before, resulting in a conviction for contempt of court. Every time it’s staged it resonates, no more than at the present time.

The trials took place after the last witch was executed in Britain, the country where these puritans came from. They lived in a theocracy where the church was clearly in control. The spark was lit by children, seemingly out for revenge, naming almost all the townswomen as witches. The girls are seen in the forest, in trances, looking as if they are possessed. It escalates rapidly and hysteria develops extraordinary quickly. To escape execution, the accused had to lie, something these people were led to believe would turn god against them. So if they told the truth, they would die, if they told a lie they would be punished by their god.

The reason the play is timeless is that it reflects human nature. Though the consequences are of course different, people have always lived in a world of witch-hunts, these days by social and printed media, which can produce as much hysteria just as quickly. It seems to be human destiny to live with conflict, in politics, religion or other belief, in neighbourhoods, communities, sport. In recent years it’s manifested itself in attitudes to the pandemic, right vs left, brexit vs remain, monarchists vs republicans, woke or anti-woke, as well as more personal attacks on J K Rowling and most recently This Morning presenters. This is a 70-year-old play about an incident 330 years ago that’s bang up to date.

The most striking thing about Lindsay Turner’s brilliant production is the extraordinary contribution Tim Lutkin’s lighting makes, illuminating individuals like I’ve never seen before. The soundscape too adds much atmosphere, and there are curtains of water on three sides before the start and between acts, which look stunning even if I still struggle for their meaning. I was so involved I wanted to audibly denounce the unfairness and tell John Proctor what he should do.

Though it’s invidious to single out actors in such a fine company, I have to say Brendan Cowell’s John Proctor was as fine a characterisation of this role as I’ve ever seen. Erin Doherty inhabits the role of Abigail, a chilling portrayal, and there are passionate performances from Fisayo Akinade as Rev. Hale and Karl Johnson as old-timer Giles Corey. The girls send shivers up your spine.

This is what the National is for. Don’t miss it.

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Blue Remembered Hills – GDIF

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Four years ago, also as part of the Greenwich & Docklands International Festival, Flemish theatre company de Roovers staged Arthur Miller’s A View From A Bridge in the open air on Greenwich Peninsula with the Docklands skyline as a backdrop, substituting for New York. It was brilliant. Now here they are on Thamesmead Waterfront with Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills.

I last saw this play at the NT 25 years ago. Then the cast of children played by adults included Steve Coogan & Robert Glenister and it was directed by Patrick Marber, midway between his hit NT plays Dealer’s Choice and Closer. It was the stage adaptation of a 1979 BBC Play for Today which itself starred Helen Mirren and Colin Welland. Quite a pedigree.

We had to take a special coach (included) from Abbey Wood station as it’s a secret, secure site, 1.5 miles of Thames waterfront, its history alone making the visit worthwhile. A wartime arsenal, abandoned hazardous land, forbidden playground, temporary adventure park and soon to be new development. A perfect location for a story about children playing and growing up. Two hills behind, one with a small derelict building on it, undergrowth all around and a playing area in front. Flights leaving Heathrow standing in for war planes.

The children play as children do, sometimes kind, sometimes cruel. Boys don’t really like girls, and vice versa, but they’re open to a bit of experimentation. They imagine, invent, lie and do deals. One gets bullied a lot. It ends tragically, playing with fire, but no-one accepts any blame, a bit like today’s adults, though they expect retribution. I wasn’t sure about some of the casting and clothing choices – no clean shaven faces and short trousers for the boys here – and the difficult Gloucester dialect when channelled through English spoken with a Flemish accent was sometimes a bit surreal, but they captured the essence of childhood and the Englishness of it all and it was a captivating ninety minutes.

GDIF are to be congratulated on the logistical feat of pulling off a show like this, and the many others in the festival. Transport, security, stewards, lighting, sound, seating…it’s quite something. Well done!

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All My Sons

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2019| 1 Comment »

There’s something astonishing and wonderful about having two Arthur Miller classics revived at the same time at theatres on the same street less than 200 meters apart, at the Old and Young Vic’s. They were first staged two years apart, this being his first big hit 72 years ago. I’ve seen a number of great revivals over the years and this one is up there with the best. Seeing it sixteen hours after I’d left Death os a Salesman made me think how alike they are, though this is entirely naturalistic, without flashbacks and imaginary scenes. As productions, they are very different, Jeremy Herrin taking his lead from this naturalism and opting for a more conventional take and a realistic setting. Both however are absolutely unmissable.

It’s just after the end of the Second World War and only one of Joe & Kate Keller’s two sons have returned. Older son Larry is still missing in action, his mother convinced he’s still alive, whilst most think he’s dead. Younger son Chris has survivors guilt, though Larry’s girlfriend Ann is visiting and he is set on proposing marriage, despite his mother’s conviction. Chris works in his dad’s engineering business, which sold faulty parts to the military, resulting in deaths. His father’s business partner Steve Deever, Ann’s dad, took the rap and went to prison, though many think Joe is really to blame.

It’s a surprise that Broadway could stomach this story just two years after the war ended, but they did, and it ran for almost a year and was made into a film just one year later. It’s timeless, as Miller often is, with corporate ethics as much of an issue today, but it’s a family tragedy, so its as much about the complex relationships within and between the Keller’s and the Deever’s. Max Jones’ uber-realistic design places a suburban home and garden on the Old Vic stage in a way that draws you in, seemingly shrinking this big theatre, well at least from the stalls.

Jeremy Herrin’s production is impeccable, building the tension slowly, taking hold of you. As I was across the road the night before, I was in awe of the acting talent on stage. Bill Pullman’s performance as Joe has a naturalism that makes you forget he’s acting. Sally Field is superb as Kate, holding on to hope her son is alive and belief in her husband’s innocence. Colin Morgan navigates Chris’ complex emotional journey brilliantly. This appears to be Jenna Coleman’s stage debut, and an auspicious one it is too. In an excellent supporting cast, I very much admired Oliver Johnstone as George Deever and Sule Rimi and neighbour Dr Jim Bayliss.

How lucky we are to have two outstanding revivals of these modern classics at the same time. The informal Miller fest becomes a Miller feast on The Cut!

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Death of a Salesman

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2019| Leave a Comment »

It’s seventy years since this iconic American play first appeared on Broadway, the second of Arthur Miller’s four big hits between 1947 and 1955, and it’s forty years since I first saw it in Michael Rudman’s production for the NT, with Warren Mitchel’s revelatory award-winning performance as Willy Loman. For some reason, I’ve only seen it a few times since, less than the other tree. It’s a timeless piece, and now Marianne Elliott & Miranda Cromwell have breathed new life into it, in an extraordinary revival at the Young Vic.

Most productions focus so much on Willy Loman and his late career meltdown that they ignore the greater sweep of family tragedy and its many layers. Willy is indeed burnt out by a relentless life on the road. When he tries to get his employer to let him return to base, he gets fired. His loyalty and service mean nothing to the son of the man who hired him, and his mental health declines, but added to his woes are the fact that his sons have been disappointments, Biff a failed sportsman who ended up as a farm labourer, Happy a womaniser with a low level job. His wife Linda struggles to manage the tensions and keep the peace. Their neighbour Charley, whose son, a contemporary of Biff, is a successful lawyer, loans them money to keep them afloat. Flashbacks to times past include Willy’s visits to his mistress, once witnessed by Biff, and there are imaginary conversations with his dead Uncle Ben, both interspersed with the family saga’s inevitable progress to its tragic conclusion.

In this production, the Loman’s are a black Brooklyn family and this adds another layer but changes nothing. Wendell Pierce is outstanding as Willy, navigating this emotional roller-coaster of a role with great skill. Sharon D Clarke’s Linda loves her man and her boys but shares his disappointments and frustrations; as stunning a performance as we’ve become used to from this fine actress. Arinze Kene and Martins Imhangbe are simply terrific as Biff and Happy, trying but failing to please, carrying their own disappointments on their shoulders. They are supported by another eight performances in a fine ensemble, including superb cameos from Joseph Mydell as Uncle Ben and Matthew Seadon-Young as Willy’s young employer Howard. Femi Temowo’s music adds much, particularly with fine singers like Sharon D Clarke and Arinze Kene in the company. Anna Fleischle’s design serves the play well.

The unofficial Miller mini-fest reaches it’s pinnacle here with a revival that’s too good to see only once. I’ll be back!

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The American Clock

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , on March 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »

For the third Arthur Miller play this year we move forward to 1980, to his biggest Broadway flop – just 12 performances after opening night – which six years later, revised, was an NT hit, moving from the Cottesloe to the Olivier. We’re back in the 30’s, continuing his examination of the aftermath of the Great Depression.

We follow the Baum family from 1929 through the loss of their money and home, moving to Brooklyn to live with relatives. Son Lee’s hopes of college disappear. Finding a job is tough. Navigating the welfare system is humiliating. Hopelessness seems to be around every corner. Robertson, a Wall Street professional, who’s prophesied the crash, narrates the story. Miller nicknamed it a Vaudeville after the revised version in Britain added thirties songs.

Director Rachel Chavkin’s big idea is to have three Baum families of different ethnic backgrounds – Jewish, South Asian and African American – sharing the three roles. This is confusing and distracting, particularly as the nine all also play other roles, as does just about everyone, and derails the first part of the play. She’s also made the music more eclectic and added dance, with one of those dance marathons people enter for money running through it. For me, this didn’t really work, and got in the way of the story.

The onstage seating and Chloe Lamford’s design detract too. There are huge trading floor indicator boards on both sides and the stage is elevated which, even from the 5th row of the stalls, seemed to be rather remote, making it hard to engage with the play. There’s a fine ensemble who work very hard, giving it their all, but the effort and passion dissipates because it’s not involving the audience. There’s so much going on that the story gets lost.

I saw the NT production at the Cottesloe and Phil Willmott’s excellent revival at the Finborough in 2012, and both served the play much better. it cries out for a simpler staging in a more intimate space, which the vast Old Vic can be, but isn’t on this occasion. I rarely leave a Miller play disappointed, but I did here.

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The Price

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , on February 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

This is the second in what appears to be an informal Miller mini-festival. It started with Enemy of the People at the Union Theatre last month and continues with American Clock & All My Sons at the Old Vic and Death of a Salesman across the road at the Young Vic. This fiftieth anniversary production of his 1968 play comes to London from the Theatre Royal Bath. Though I liked the productions I saw 17 and 29 years ago, I’ve never considered it up there with the big four which, with Enemy in the middle, appeared between 1947 & 1955 – Sons, Salesman, The Crucible & A View from the Bridge. On this form, though, I’m beginning to think again.

Victor and his wife Esther are in the attic of Victor’s recently deceased father, waiting for Gregory Solomon, who’s going to value and hopefully make an offer for the contents. Victor has been trying, but has failed, to get hold of his estranged brother Walter, who really should be with him. Esther leaves soon after Solomon arrives and the rest of the first half is mostly a two-hander, an entertaining and often funny discussion which leaves you wondering where its going. When Esther returns and Walter arrives, Solomon takes a back seat while the family history is played out and you realise it’s more about the price we pay for decisions in our lives than it is about the price of the contents of the apartment.

Walter is a hot-shot surgeon and Victor an NYC cop, these destinies determined by their relative responses to their dad growing old. As often with Miller, dad was a victim of the depression. Victor stayed loyal, at the expense of his career, while Warren broke away for his, decisions with had profound effects on their lives. They haven’t seen much of each other since, and there’s a lot that’s unsaid. Walter now tries to reconcile and make amends, but it’s too late, and somewhat disingenuous. Esther is at first frustrated by her husband’s intransigence, but won’t see him lose his pride and dignity. This second act confrontation is the heart of the piece and it’s simply masterly.

Simon Higglett’s brilliant design of the ramshackle apartment piles layers upon layers of family history, but provides an intimate space for the brothers’ exorcism of the past. Brendan Coyle is terrific as Victor, at first accepting the cards he’s played, but eventually showing bitterness and regret at an unfulfilled life. David Suchet is excellent as the worldly wise Solomon, wickedly funny, determined to get a deal, interjecting into the family discussions now and again. Adrian Lukis plays the unsympathetic Walter, the chalk to Coyle’s cheese, though he’s paid his own price too. I loved Sara Stewart’s interpretation of Esther, often critical of her man but ultimately loyal and loving.

The Price came at the midpoint of Miller’s playwriting career, both in terms of years and plays. Whatever you think of it, Jonathan Church’s production provides an opportunity to see this more rarely produced play as well as you’re ever likely to see it staged, and for this Miller fan it made me realise how much I’d underrated it. Until now.

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An Enemy of the People

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

This 1950 adaptation of Ibsen by Arthur Miller came midway between All My Sons & Death Of A Salesman and The Crucible & A View From A Bridge, an extraordinarily productive and successful eight years for Miller, fired up by the McCarthy trials. It’s rarely produced these days, so Phil Willmott’s revival at the Union Theatre is very welcome, and as it turns out very timely.

Miller didn’t change much, just gave it contemporary relevance 68 years later and Willmott has done the same another 68 years on. The small town of Kirsten Springs is in the process of building a spa resort. Town doctor Thomas Stockmann has been following up patterns of illness by having the water tested and he’s ready to go public, with the local newspaper on his side. It will delay and increase the cost of the project and when his sister the Mayor gets wind of it she points out how much damage it will do to the town and how much extra tax the people will have to cough up. The newspaper withdraws its support so Stockmann calls a public meeting, which is hijacked by the mayor and newspaper in cahoots. He becomes an enemy of the people, with consequences to his family’s safety, job loss, eviction and blackmail from the mayor, the newspaper and even his father-in-law, but not everyone can be bought.

It proves to be absolutely timeless, resonating in our current political climate where finding anyone with principles is like finding a needle in a haystack and where fake news rules. The production has great pace and passion. They even manage to make the public meeting rousing with just nine actors and some recorded crowd noise. It’s an excellent ensemble led by terrific performances from David Mildon as Stockman and Mary Stewart as his sister The Mayor. Willmott has breathed new life into it as he did to The Incident at Vichy two years ago. An absolute must for Miller fans and strongly recommended for anyone who likes gripping drama.

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Finishing the Picture

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

It’s taken thirteen years for Arthur Miller’s last play to cross the Atlantic, and on this showing you can’t help wondering why. As if the Finborough Theatre didn’t have enough feathers in its cap, here’s another one for this European premiere of a fascinating play.

Though Miller insisted it was a work of fiction, he is clearly revisiting a period in his life he first did with After the Fall forty years before. His five-year marriage to Marilyn Monroe was disintegrating during the filming of The Misfits in 1960, for which Miller wrote the screenplay, and it’s hard not to see this play as based that real-life experience.

We’re on a troubled film set where the leading lady’s behaviour is raising a lot of eyebrows. Famous director Derek Clemson is desperate to complete his film, cinematographer Terry Case anxious she looks right in his shots and Philip Oschner, the producer sent by the company’s new owners, just wants to finish it before his boss closes it down. Actress Kitty’s assistant Edna and coach Flora try and keep her together; they even fly in Flora’s husband Jerome, another coach. Our other character is screenwriter and Kitty’s husband Paul, their marriage breaking down before our eyes.

There are a couple of striking things about the play. The first is that it revolves around a character we never see, and the second is that the third act is made up almost entirely of a series of monologues by all of the characters talking to Kitty through a gap in the doorway of her hotel room. Most of the characters are probably archetypes or ‘composites’, as Miller said, but there are too many parallels between Kitty and Monroe and Phil and himself to make this anything other than an exorcism of a troubled period sixty-five years before, through guilt perhaps.

I much admired Phil Willmott’s staging and the work of design team Isabella Van Braeckel (set), Penn O’Gara (costumes), Rachel Sampley (lighting) and Nicola Chang (sound). Oliver Le Sueur creates a totally believable period perfect rookie producer in Philip. Jeremy Drakes, with the help of some specs perhaps, actually looks like Miller and I very much liked his restrained performance. Rachel Handshaw makes much of her role as assistant Edna, embarking on a relationship with producer Philip. Patrick Bailey looks and sounds every bit the down-to-earth cinematographer Terry. Stephen Billington, Nicky Goldie and Tony Wredden complete the picture with fine characterisations.

For a Miller fan like me, this is a huge treat, but it’s a decent play regardless, and a lot better than the other two of the final trio – Mr Peter’s Connections and Resurrection Blues – which I’d recommend to anyone.

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A View from the Bridge

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , on June 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The Greenwich & Docklands International Festival is best known for outdoor spectaculars, so its good to see them include a classic play. Flemish company de Roovers first staged it with Antwerp docks passing for the Brooklyn longshore. Now Greenwich Peninsula and the Thames riverbank pose as Red Hook with the skyscrapers of Docklands standing in for lower Manhattan. It’s an inspired idea.

Arthur Miller’s play is like a Greek tragedy, but an Italian American one, involving longshoreman Eddie Carbone, his wife Beatrice, his niece Catherine and two other relatives, Rodolpho and Marco, illegal immigrants from Sicily seeking better lives than they can have in post-war Italy. Eddie is possessive of Catherine; they are close, too close, and as she develops a relationship with Rodolpho, Eddie becomes racked with jealousy, with tragic consequences. I particularly liked the way they represented the way Eddie’s life is turned upside-down by the developing relationship.

At the end of a sweltering week. it was cold and windy and this somehow added dramatic effect, with dust blowing across the playing area and brooding cloud cover above the skyscrapers. The sparseness, with just a platform and chair representing the Carbone living room and the phone box specified in Miller’s stage directions, added to the atmosphere, as does the soundtrack by a live trio. It was reasonably faithful to Miller, but I wish they hadn’t changed the ending, as this added a touch of implausibility to go with its heightened dramatic effect.

With the actors all of a similar age, you do have to suspend disbelief and imagine the youth of Catherine and Rodolpho, and why on earth the lawyer Alfieri broke into a manic dance during one of his later pieces of narration is beyond me, but these were the only things that jarred in an atmospheric telling of a classic tale. 

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Incident at Vichy

Posted in Theatre, tagged , , on April 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

This Arthur Miller play hasn’t had a professional production here in over fifty years and I’ve been waiting most of those years to see it myself, but it was worth the wait for Phil Willmotts’s excellent, timely production at the indispensable Finborough Theatre.

It’s set in a police waiting room in the French city of Vichy during the German occupation. Vichy is of course the centre of unoccupied France but German soldiers are present as part of the collaboration deal. The ten men are ostensibly there to have their papers checked but it’s clear they have not been selected randomly. They discuss what it must all be about, with some of the view it is just routine and others with more radical theories including racial selection. When ‘the professor’ and a German officer disagree loudly, the reason becomes clear – they are rounding up Jews.

The group includes a psychiatrist, painter, waiter, electrician, actor, gypsy and an Austrian prince. ‘The professor’ is accompanied by a French policeman as well as the German officer. The discussion extends beyond theories to options and issues of morality, notably the lengths people will go to in order to protect and save themselves. In the end both the German officer and Austrian prince show their humanity. It’s a tense and gripping ninety minute debate, set in a claustrophobic white box. The characterisations are finely detailed and the acting is outstanding. 

This was a mid-career Miller play, coming between After the Fall and The Price, 10-20 years after classics like All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View From a Bridge. It’s a puzzle why it’s so rarely produced, but this is a very welcome opportunity to see it and the Finborough have done Miller proud.

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