Here in America - Orange Tree

I thought this was very average. It feels like a well-worn story: everyone knows about Kazan & Miller at the McCarthy hearings, and about Miller and Monroe. If you don’t know about those things, I’m not sure if you’d have booked for this play. It was a mildly entertaining evening, but said nothing new, so what was the point?

I agree with the previous comment about the Miller/Monroe conversations, especially the bits about Monroe‘s support for Rosa Parks and Ella Fitzgerald, which felt like the playwright needed something to show how Marilyn had also stuck her neck out for her beliefs, but it wasn‘t properly woven into the plot.

The Monroe sections were sometimes Miller & Kazan imagining her, but I’m not sure what that was meant to be saying? I think we already know that MM was damaged by being objectified and idealised by Hollywood and also by those close to her, but that’s not really developed any further in this play.

I’m sure there’s a good play to be written about Miller’s relationship with Kazan but this is not it. It was OK but there was way too much exposition that was clunkily shoehorned in.
Great cast, though, and quite a coup for OT to get Shaun Evans and Michael Aloni - they deserve better.

Saw this at yesterday's matinee and really enjoyed it, mostly because Michael Aloni's wily smily Arthur Miller feels like the real thing and I just enjoyed feeling like I was in close quarters with such a great playwright at the height of his powers for 80 minutes.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I do agree that it's likely that if we are attending this show, we likely know that Kazan named names to Senator McCarthy and Arthur Miller refused. So, in a sense, we are mostly just told what we already know.

But it is fun to see two such friends try to justify two such disparate opinions about the same issue to each other.

And the inclusion of Monroe and Kazan's wife, Mary, to suggest that their respective positions were bolstered, possibly even decisively influenced, by powerful muses, usefully colours the story.

Dreamily, the idealistic Monroe's contributions are presented more in the style of Miller's own plays, as hallucinatory fantasy memories populating his mind, whereas Kazan's wife is a more tangible force of nature, acidly against the Communists, her husband more guilt-ridden and wobbly.

Noone can truly embody the iconic Monroe, but I loved Jasmine Blackborow's principled dreamy musing, and Faye Castelow's Mary is excitingly the mouse that roared.

Shaun Evans effectively portrays the way a man wobbles towards betraying his principles when his career is on the line.

But for me, the principal joy of attending this play is how much Aloni embodies the young Miller. If it wasn't for a slight hint of Tel Aviv in his otherwise Brooklyn accent, you'd swear he really was the young Miller, in his appearance and in his twinkling intelligent expression. His mischievous glee in talking about the play, "The Crucible," the way it may or may not be about both Salem and HUAC, the way the comparison might make Salem look bad, filled me with delight.

I think of this play as a delightful hour and twenty minutes in the company of Arthur Miller lol. 3 and a half stars from me.

I go regularly to The Orange Tree and I think the 'small theatre space' is one of its strongest assets.

Also agree that the small, 4-sided auditorium is a big plus at the OT. The only downside is that unless you're able/careful to book one of the few aisle seats near the only 2 exits, it would be hard to leave discreetly during the performance, especially downstairs. In the old days this consideration never entered my head and I hope not to have to resort to an early departure now Tom L is in charge, but as shorter, no-interval plays seem more frequent at present, it remains a concern. Given the lacklustre reports of the current production and suggestions that the issue lies with the script rather than the direction or performances, I'm not sure I want to slog to and from Richmond for 80 minutes of something which may not be worth it.

That's good to hear. I returned two tickets for a sold out performance last year. They resold the tickets, but charged me an admin fee for doing so.

I agree with most of what's been said on this thread. I didn't get the feeling I learnt anything new - factual or opinion-wise - about Kazan, Miller and the McCarthy era. And whilst it was reasonably entertaining and not badly written it wasn't like "wow!".

I've been trying to see Edgar's "Destiny" for decades (unsuccessfully) so I actually booked this on the strength of his name and Shaun Evans, who I loved as Endeavour, and my favourite sushi joint next door. I didn't have a clue on the subject matter. If anything Edgar appears, surprisingly, more benevolent towards Kazan than I would have expected.

I shouldn’t have broken my rule of not seeing new plays - this was quite dull, parts of it like a dramatised Wikipedia entry with facts (most of which I already knew) and exposition but no drama.

If you want a drama about Miller’s relationship with Monroe it’s in his own work - After the Fall (the play referenced at the end here) and Finishing the Picture - and elements of the relationship with Kazan are of course reflected in The Crucible (explained for us here like a GCSE schools summary) and A View from the Bridge. I thought the Miller character was the best written and acted. I found Kazan wholly unconvincing and the two women characters underwritten and underdeveloped.

I suppose the name David Edgar sells (it was full) but I don’t think it would have got produced if it had been by a less well known playwright.

This improved a good deal on a second viewing; it's so densely written that it needs at least one repeat visit to unpack a lot of the lines motives and actions - there is a LOT going on under the surface I didn't take in first time. Having said that it still feels unnecessarily elliptical, and while I understand the idea behind the Marilyn "fantasy" sections I don't think they actually work, at least in this production. Having said that, there's unlikely to be another any time soon, so maybe one for the videocast when they do it...