DEATH OF A SALESMAN. To 7 April.
Bolton
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
by Arthur Miller
Octagon Theatre To 7 April 2007
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 4, 7 April 2pm
Audio-described & BSL Signed 28 March
Runs 2hr 45min One interval
TICKETS: 01204 520661
www.octagonbolton.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 24 March
A Salesman to be bought with confidence.
I would have thought this very good, had I not just seen Sue Lefton’s Colchester/Ipswich Salesman, a production so fresh and fluent it’s impossible to put it out of mind. Of course, there’s likely to be minimal audience crossover between Bolton and East Anglia. The good news is, even with Lefton’s version in mind, Mark Babych’s Octagon revival remains strong, if more conventional.
David Fleeshman is a hefty Willy Loman, lumbering on with his two suitcases full of samples. In a fine touch they stay where he drops them on arrival, forming the entrance to his home; as if his life is determined by his job.
Willy’s apparent optimism is unjustified (“I’m VITAL in New England,” Fleeshman proudly announces of his drumming-beat) just as his idea of success built on material consumption and his ideal of Dave Singleman, who could sell without leaving his hotel bedroom in cities across the States, and died the death of a salesman aged 84, delude him from either the hard slog of his neighbour’s lad Bernard or the imaginative commitment of Uncle Ben the adventurer.
His wife Linda’s complicit in this, discouraging him from following Ben’s explorations. Joanna Bacon’s the little woman whose worries and excuses muffle Willy’s protests at consumer-goods’ failings, yet who never realises her husband’s profound defeat – unsurprisingly, she misinterprets the disappearance of the tubing he’s kept for a suicide attempt.
Jamie Lee gives Biff a troubled energy while Nathan Nolan’s Happy has a suitably contrasting unpleasant edge in his confident assertions. Peter Barich makes Willy’s employer sleekly unsympathetic, his bleak, uninterested smile a blocking response to Willy’s impatience and irritation as their interview goes disastrously wrong.
Hannah Clark’s set slides the floor of the Loman house away when locations shift elsewhere (a practical reason for its bareness, just table-and-chairs plus the repeatedly-mentioned fridge, all backed by dull wallpaper), while the backing scenery alternates between a built-up present and a tree-lined past, showing another aspect of consumer growth. By turns sweet, eerie, cheerful or sad, Ivan Stott’s flute-based score is a major contributor to the shifting tones of Arthur Miller’s play.
Linda Loman: Joanna Bacon
Howard/Stanley: Peter Barich
Miss Forsyth: Jo Cowen
Willy Loman: David Fleeshman
Woman: Caroline Harding
Charley: Peter Harding
Biff: Jamie Lee
Happy: Nathan Nolan
Bernard: Liam O’Brien
Uncle Ben: Michael Poole
Letta: Charlotte Watmuff
Director: Mark Babych
Designer: Hannah Clark
Lighting: Jason Osterman
Sound: Andy Smith
Composer: Ivan Stott
Dialect coach: Sally Hague
2007-04-02 00:09:04