Arthur Miller memorably described Death of a Salesman as “a love story between a man and his son, and in a crazy way between both of them and America”. An indictment of materialism, the play is also an experiment in theatrical time travel and a painful vision of domestic life at its most banal.
Miller originally favoured the title “The Inside of His Head”. The head in question is Willy Loman’s, and its inside turns out to be full of faulty memories and misplaced loyalties. Inching towards his mid-sixties and feeling increasingly exhausted, Willy retreats into the past in order to escape the disappointments of the present, where bills mount up and prospects dwindle.
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Here he is played by Antony Sher, who finely articulates his moments of crumpled dejection and his capacity for contradicting himself, as well as his occasional surges of positive energy. But while Sher is absorbing when suggesting Willy’s volatility, he is less convincing in the flashbacks to brighter days when his two sons found him easy to admire. Harriet Walter brings restraint and a touch of cool enigma to his perceptive wife Linda. Alex Hassell conveys their son Biff’s sensitivity and the extent to which he’s been injured by Willy’s delusions. There’s robust support from Tobias Beer and Joshua Richards, though Sam Marks doesn’t imbue Biff’s younger brother Happy with much colour.
Gregory Doran’s production is respectful rather than revelatory. It’s solid, weighty and lucid, but doesn’t quite capture Miller’s sickly lyricism or the dangerous fluidity of Willy’s awful fantasies.
Until May 2 (0844 800 1110, rsc.org.uk)
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