Death of a Salesman

Nothing for my currently available dates unfortunately (10/13/21/22May & 15June). Hopefully more may be released this week once previews start.

I saw that they opened up seats two weeks ago and jumped on it. I only needed a single and £40 is in my price range. I've never been to the Young Vic so that will be exciting for me as well. I really love Sharon D. Clarke and amazing that she will give such a vital speech in a classic play.

Extended to 13th July - tickets for the extension on sale now

Also - £10 rush tickets released weekly www.youngvic.org/doas-rush-tickets

I saw it last night. Beautiful production and solid performances that will surely become even more assured as the run goes on (Arinze’ Kene became a bit shrieky in a key scene and I struggled to understand what he was saying). I was out at 10,40 pm.

There was intention to transfer this at first, correct?

Do we think the extension is a sign it won't be transferring now?

I'd imagine Wendell Pierce has irons in the fire, as well. Here for the experience and then back to New Orleans and lucrative small screen drama.

I was there callum too tonight and I absolutely agree with your excellent review. It was an outstanding production and set of performances. The production is very stylised but that just adds to the play's power and startling modernity. The quartet of family actors were just sensational and it was wonderful that we had such classy singers in the cast as the music added greatly to the emotional impact. You could actually feel the audience hanging on every word it was so good and I was pleased the ecstatic audience response at the end moved the actors so much - particularly Wendell Pierce.

I was there also and really enjoyed it, for all of Arthur Millers’ skill, he certainly underperformed when it came to Awards first time around, Salesman is the exception which garnered him both the Pulitzer and Tony, So this is the second production I have seen of Salesman, the first being the excellent RSC production with the heavyweight Anthony Sher who was an exceptional Willie Loman, however I found Wendell Pierce put his own spin on this, but was just as enjoyable. Sharon D. Clarke, needs no praise, I just take it as red she is going to be great. The other actors played their roles well.

The play has one of my favourite quotes from stage, “Nobody dast blame this man. You don’t understand: Willy was a salesman. And for a salesman, there’s no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple spots on your hat and your finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream boy, it comes with the territory.”

New York is due another production of Salesman, so wonder if that is a reason why they had an American playing Willie Loman?

4 Stars

Slow start but was great overall. Brilliant cast and lighting

Rush was pretty painless today. Managed to get a front row seat in row AA for Monday - £10. Glad I’ll get the chance to see this.

Yes, I saw this last night and also loved it. Marianne Elliott plus superb performances make for pitch perfect Miller.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Elliott uses music, in the form of song and strummed guitar notes, to convey not only a sense of time and place, but a sense of multiple times and places existing at once in Willy Loman's fragmenting mind. She creates a visual corollary by having characters freeze frame themselves in poses etched into Willy's memory, like photographs, as he revisits key moments of his life. The feel is reminiscent of a theatrical rendering of the kind of subjective cinematic dreamscape of a Dennis Potter or a Stephen Poliakoff.

In my opinion, the concerns of this piece are resolutely the concerns of Miller's "Death of a Salesman," not a comment on race, except in so far as suggesting that the concerns of Miller are the concerns of everyone. I recall how in Arinze Kene's "Misty," his character felt his humanity squeezed by racial concerns on all sides, resisting bigoted stereotypes of black masculinity, while also resisting the call to define his entire life as a resistance to such bigotry: Kene trapped inside a giant yellow balloon is the most indelible, unforgettable and successful image of that production. Here, the balloon is burst, as this production is not about race, but humanity. Biff's flaws, Biff's strengths, Willy's flaws, Linda's strengths are universally human, which every human can relate to.

The acting is universally urgent: especially the way Wendell Pierce slowly shatters Willy Loman's exuberance into shards, of desperate affability, seething anger and endless delusion; Sharon D. Clarke serves up deep wells of resolve and compassion; and Arinze Kene's and Martins Imhangbe's Biff and Happy, effortlessly embody different versions of themselves across time. Kene's great strength is that he shows us Biff the man, Biff the child, then best-of-all, Biff-the-child-inside-the-man! Meanwhile, Matthew Seadon-Young just as effortlessly becomes multiple characters, from scene to scene, here a caring friend, there an indifferent boss. A fantastic ensemble.

Elliot uses singing sparingly, honouring the primacy of the play, which feels like a deprivation for the audience, as there is never enough of it, so wonderfully do Clarke, Kene, Seadon-Young and co. sound when their voices blend into this still sad song of our common humanity.

For me, a very moving 4 and a half stars.

Just picked up a £10 lucky dip for the last night on 13th July, more there to be had