Theater Review: EgoPo’s Death of a Salesman
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
EgoPo's American Giants Festival starts with a classic that many Americans first encounter in textbooks.
EgoPo’s American Giants Festival starts with a classic that many Americans first encounter in textbooks: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. While I applaud artistic director Lane Savadove’s creative, energetic approach to revered works — last year’s Ibsen season successfully brought three late-1800s plays into the 21st century — his approach here has mixed results.
Most successful are the muscular performances. Ed Swidey’s Willy Loman is a dynamic mess: not burning out slowly, but self-destructing in flames. Mary Lee Bednarak infuses wife Linda with ferocious loyalty and passionate love for her husband, a shock for those accustomed to a weakly compliant Linda. Double casting smaller roles energizes key scenes with instant transformations that mirror Willy’s encroaching madness, making Russ Widdall and Anna Zaida Szapiro’s fine performances particularly special.
Dirk Durossette’s towering abstract set frames the action — and it’s only one of his three terrific designs that opened last week, along with Luna’s Quills and the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s Henry V. Matt Sharp’s lighting and Robert Carlton’s rumbling sound design complement the set’s expressionist approach.
As his program notes explain, Savadove presents Willy’s downfall as Linda’s flashback, beginning the play with his funeral, which raises nagging questions about what Linda knew about her husband’s activities: Was she aware of his infidelities and his refusal of neighbor Charley’s job offer? The idea contradicts son Biff’s (Sean Lally) fierce protection of his mother and other key information.
Moreover, Savadove makes the Lomans Jewish, adding nothing to our understanding while inserting distracting details like Willy’s beard (would displaying his background help a salesman traveling through waspy 1949 New England?) and his brother’s thick accent. Casting Charley and son Bernard with black actors feels progressive — and Steven Wright and Derrick L. Millard II are very good — but hints that Willy’s jealousy is fueled by racism.
Despite these and other awkward decisions — why interrupt the family’s shiva with the curtain speech? — this Death of a Salesman radically exceeds typical productions, and asserts EgoPo’s inspiring resistance to treating classics like museum pieces.
Through Nov. 9, $25, EgoPo Classic Theater at the Latvian Society, 531 N. Seventh St., 267-273-1414.
