Showing posts with label miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miller. Show all posts

Monday, July 11, 2011

Videos of Death of a Salesman






The picture above is from the original 1949 performance of Death of a Salesman.  Lee J. Cobb was Willy, Arthur Kennedy was Biff, and Cameron Mitchell played Happy.  Cobb later appeared in CBS' 1966 movie for television.  

See this link for a picture from that later production:  

The 1985 Death of a Salesman is harder to find, so I will send you a few other versions, starting with a 1951 version that Arthur Miller did *not* approve of!


Avery Brooks starred in a 2008 production at Oberlin College.  (He and the director Justin Emeka are both Oberlin alums.)


Starting with this YouTube, Brooks and Emeka discuss the production:




In 2009, Charles S. Dutton played Willy in Yale Rep's version:


Brian Dennehy played Willy in 2000.  This TV movie appeared on Showtime, another of our premium channels:




These pictures are from a 2005 production, also starring Dennehy.  This production was staged at London's Lyric Theater.  I think that my sister-in-law may have seen either this version or an earlier one at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

David Mamet argues that Death of a Salesman is a Jewish play:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/may/07/theatre.davidmamet


This version from 1996 is British and appeared on the BBC:


DC's own Arena Stage also had a version of Death of a Salesman as part of an Arthur Miller festival in 2008:

The Ensemble Theater's 2008 version is here.  (This company is Australian.)


I'll close with the Raven Theater Company's 2008/9 version.  This company is based in Chicago.


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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Salesman in Beijing


Reading Arthur Miller's memoir about his 1983 production of Death of a Salesman makes me realize how much American culture has changed since then and perhaps even how diverse Montgomery County is.  Indeed, Miller observes, "[the actors] are simply the-Lomans-as- Chinese-looking people.  This places them in some country of the mind, not in any earthly geography" (172).  Could one say this about the New York and Boston of *our* today, to use Miller's stage directions?



The picture above is of Flushing, a neighborhood in NYC's borough of Queens.  

The picture above shows actor B.D. Wong who plays a detective on Law and Order: SVU.  As you may know, this show is set in NYC.

However, back in 1983, the Beijing production of Death of a Salesman was groundbreaking.  Although it had been just over ten years since Nixon's visit, China was emerging from a period of isolation and recovering from its Cultural Revolution.  (Miller makes many observations about the impact of this historical period on the Chinese, especially on the actors he works with and the intellectuals he meets.)  The production of Death of a Salesman was therefore part of China's emergence and the development of its theater.  (Miller also notes that his play's approach to time and space was novel to the Chinese.  Most Chinese plays emphasized "realism" and a moral message over interiority and memory.  Ironically, Western scholars such as Robert Brustein criticized Miller for his concern with politics and society.)  

For more information about China's history and the Cultural Revolution, see these sites:





Miller also discusses his Chinese actors' approach to theater.  It is more physical than Westerners' reliance on psychology and motivation.  In fact, Miller is mystified and annoyed by his actors' desire to wear wigs and therefore appear more "Western."  Finally, one actor reveals to him that Chinese actors enjoy dressing up and feeling that, by changing their appearance, they may "change their fate."  Nevertheless, Miller is concerned about the effect that the actors' attempts to look "Western" may have on his play's realism.  It is also amusing to read Miller's complaints about the 1940's long skirts.


At this point, you may wonder whether the play was performed in English or Chinese and whether Miller knew Chinese.  The play was performed in Chinese.  The actor playing Willy, Ying Ruocheng, also translated it, and Miller was quite pleased with this translation.  Miller did not know Chinese.  His wife, the photographer Inge Morath, did, having studied the language for eight years.  Miller also relied on several other translators, especially Ying Ruocheng.  Moreover, this was not Miller's first trip to China, and he and his wife had hosted many visitors from that country (including Ying Ruocheng).  

Here is a picture of the cast of Death of a Salesman with the play's author.

Below is a picture of Ying Ruocheng in another role.  I will try to find out which one it is.  

He, too, has written an autobiography, so I guess I have something else for my summer reading!!

As I close, I wonder what Arthur Miller would have made about the Oberlin production of Death of a Salesman starring Avery Brooks.

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Friday, February 4, 2011

Videos in EN 230 -- 2/3

The picture above is from the original 1949 performance of Death of a Salesman.  Lee J. Cobb was Willy, Arthur Kennedy was Biff, and Cameron Mitchell played Happy.  Cobb later appeared in CBS' 1966 movie for television.  

See this link for a picture from that later production:  


First is the link to the beginning of the film Richard III starring Ian Mckellen.  This film is set in the 1930s.  Note that the beginning of Shakespeare's play is not the beginning of this film!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm1kaanjd8M&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=PLB0A3B33E632863CB

You may also enjoy Mckellen's "courtship" scene here.  Kristin Scott-Thomas plays Lady Anne, the widow of a man Richard has killed.


Here Mckellen interprets Richard III's opening speech ("Now is the winter..."):


Next is the link to part 1 of Al Pacino's Looking for Richard:


The 1985 Death of a Salesman is harder to find, so I will send you a few other versions, starting with a 1951 version that Arthur Miller did *not* approve of!


Avery Brooks starred in a 2008 production at Oberlin College.  (He and the director Justin Emeka are both Oberlin alums.)


Starting with this YouTube, Brooks and Emeka discuss the production:

In 2009, Charles S. Dutton played Willy in Yale Rep's version:


Brian Dennehy played Willy in 2000.  This TV movie appeared on Showtime, another of our premium channels:


These pictures are from a 2005 production, also starring Dennehy.  This production was staged at London's Lyric Theater.  I think that my sister-in-law may have seen either this version or an earlier one at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.


This version from 1996 is British and appeared on the BBC:


DC's own Arena Stage also had a version of Death of a Salesman as part of an Arthur Miller festival in 2008:

The Ensemble Theater's 2008 version is here.  (This company is Australian.)


I'll close with the Raven Theater Company's 2008/9 version.  This company is based in Chicago.
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