Theatre Review - Death of a Salesman

Death of a Salesman

Theatre Review

Written by Arthur Miller

Directed by Ethan McSweeney

When: Thursday, March 25, 7:30pm

Where: Thompson Theater at the Roselle Center for the Arts

(University of Delaware, Newark, DE)

What: Play, Professional Theatre, Drama

I'm like a broken record when it comes to these productions from the Resident Ensemble Players at University of Delaware.  Professional actors doing stellar work with stellar staging and stellar directing.

Once again, as in the past when I discuss these REP productions, Death of a Salesman has already ended, so there's not a whole lot of reason for me to push people to see this.  Nevertheless, a few things to point out here:

• As the play hit intermission, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't resonating with me at all.  It felt very dated and completely irrelevant (similar to my feelings toward Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge which I saw in NYC this year with Scarlett Johannson and Liev Schrieber).  While it still didn't necessarily hit a nerve with me personally (not that all theater has to), when that second act rolled around...Wow...just wow...Talk about powerful stuff.  Miller managed to raise the tension to a boiling point, but it never felt forced or fake.  The final thirty minutes were powerfully devastating.
• And part of the reason for that success is the REP's acting ensemble who, once again, shines. 
  Stephen Pelinski as Willy Loman, Kathleen Pirkl Tague as his wife Linda, and Michael Gotch as their son Biff all proved their talent yet again.  Tague, in particular, was wonderful...her final scenes were gutwrenching.
• Once again, nifty set design as is always the case in these productions.

Like I said, no need to dwell on it since it's impossible to see it, but it was a great night at the theater and I'm eagerly looking forward to the REP's next production, Dancing at Lughnasa, in a few weeks.