November 16th, 2008
Having stopped off at the York Theatre Royal while on our Saturday lunchtime excursion into the City we decided to buy a couple of tickets for that evenings performance of Death of a Salesman. The write up indicated we were not exactly going to have a rip roaring barrel of laughs and as it turned out we didn’t. Until now, we hadn’t heard of the play by Arthur Miller which first opened in New York in 1949 and according to the programme has being packing them in ever since. Directed by Damian Cruden, Artistic Director at York Theatre Royal, it was two and a half hours of intense contradiction as we followed the lives of the Loman family as Willy slowly descended into a complete breakdown resulting in he taking his own life. George Costigan spent much of his time switching between calm measured discussion to outbursts of anger that came from nowhere. Eileen O’Brien who playes his wife Linda, slowly throughout the play builds the tension without you ever realising it and at its conclusion steals the show. Joseph Rye and Kieran Hill who both play Willy’s sons give believable performances and like George Costigan seem to be able to switch emotions from light hearted fun to deep dark outbursts of anger. When Kevin McGowan who plays Uncle Ben first appears on stage I was reminded of Colonel Saunders from KFC, but within a couple of scenes had bought into the character he played. I am not sure Paul entirely gets theatre, primarily because at what point he said, “I don’t get theatre”, but at least I ‘enjoyed’ it. I did find myself laughing at the end though because of all the old dears in tears in the audience as the curtain fell.
Pryordurkin rating 4 Stars.
Running from 31st October ’08 thru 29th November ’08. Telephone 01904 623568
Posted in Arts and Entertainment