Death Of A Salesman
Directed By Matt Taylor
Earl Arts Centre
 

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Before Arthur Miller first began staging Death of a Salesman in 1949, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright toyed with the idea of designing his set in the shape of a human head. The thought was that the entire play could take place within the mind of Willie Loman, whose death the play is named for. Little do other's perceptions of us matter, only our own, in the end. We view the world and our worth from inside our own head.

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Though Miller decided not to pursue the idea, it being a time in theatre when production's being pared back was more favourable, that is not the case in Launceston's latest staging. Director and star Matt Taylor's production of Salesman, a five-show run from his theatre company DARE Collective, has opted for a cerebral approach in the same spirit as Miller's abandoned one.

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In an inspired staging at the Earl Arts Centre, Taylor - with assistance from digital artist Darryl Rogers - designed his set as a projector screen, leaving half the actors projections. Miller's critique of the American Dream becomes, somehow, a melding of cinema and stage; of home movie and home life.

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The effect is eerie: ghostly apparitions of the past take up residence on the stark space of Willy Loman's life - here played with a morbid pathos by Stan Gottschalk - and we are there to bear witness to it. Stage actors interact with pre-filmed segments of the production - creating a strange delineation between reality and fantasy - as the world unravels around Willie. With strong performances at its back, particularly the likes of Kerri Gay as Linda Loman, DARE's production was always going to be a success - how to push it above such a place was the only real question. Taylor's decision to produce Salesman in such a way is an exciting one, both as a creative project and as a final project: what would that look like to try a classic this way?

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It was an ambitious vision for Launceston's newest theatre company, and one that has visually paid off as well as textually. The attempt breathes new life into aging lungs; Miller's script is unassailable; it may be one of the great 20th century plays, if not the greatest, but new direction can always bring it into new light and a new appreciation.

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DARE Collective is living up to its name.

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Review by Declan Durrant (Courtesy of The Examiner)