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Culture Theatre

Death Of A Salesman

DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Arthur Miller, directed by Albert Schultz (Soulpepper). At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill). To November 20. $31.20-$75.33. 416-866-8666. See Continuing. Rating: NNNN


To borrow a line from Arthur Miller, Albert Schultz’s unsentimental production of Death Of A Salesman is dark but full of diamonds.

It’s a brutal but sympathetic gaze at the unremarkable Willy Loman, a man who has both bought and sold the American dream. Witnessing his psychological collapse, Willy’s equally bereft family moves through the house like ghosts. The stage is cluttered and dim, but there are moments of lustre.

The first act moves like a fever dream of unrealized desire, the superb cast playing every far-fetched fantasy for keeps. Joseph Ziegler is a potent mix of brash confidence and hyperbolic doubt. His protagonist is never pathetic, seeming a little too shrewd, even when desperately planting the literal/figurative carrot he’s been following his whole life. Ziegler is tremendous in a pivotal scene with Howard (Brendan Wall), his cocky young boss more interested in his tape recorder. Instead of falling to pieces, Ziegler hovers on the verge of losing it. It’s terrifying to behold.

Equally impressive is Michael Hanrahan as Willy’s successful neighbour Charley, and Gregory Prest as his übersuccessful son Bernard. Prest gives an especially complex turn, making Bernard more smug than saintly. Typically, these two characters seem like the winners, but Schultz cannily establishes them as cookie-cutter images of achievement with their matching suits, hats in hand.

But it’s Ari Cohen’s passionately exhausted Biff that pushes this production to another emotional level. His transition from energetic youth to heavy-handed man-child is wrenching. Amazingly, Cohen never cedes to rage, even when you can see it clenched in his jaw. His Biff hangs on to a tenderness that continually surprises, showing just how much can exist in one person in a moment, bringing this Death to life.

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