October 2022 - Thoughts and Critiques

For this Willy Loman, the American Dream is More Remote than Ever

by Lisa on October 7, 2022 posted in Theater, New York

Death of a Salesman has been owned by White actors–and by White audiences.
André de Shields

The Loman house in this astonishing new production of Death of a Salesman consists of an explosion of isolated windows, doors, and furniture suspended by wires. I’m reminded of Arthur Miller’s original title for the play, The Inside of His Head, as these precarious furnishings, which descend and rise throughout the play, reflect the fractures within Willy’s mind as well as the tenuous state of the Loman family.

Sharon D Clarke and Wendell Pierce. Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

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Leopoldstadt is Stoppard’s reckoning with his family history

by Lisa on October 1, 2022 posted in Theater, New York

Tom Stoppard’s holocaust play begins in 1899 on a stage teeming with life. The extended Merz family, assimilated Viennese Jews, some of them Christian converts or married to Christians, are celebrating the holidays. While the adults discuss Klimt, Mahler, Herzl and the Jewish question, children run in and out and one puts a Star of David on top of the Christmas tree. Grandma Emilia regrets that no one remembers some of the people in the photos she’s leafing through. “It’s like a second death to lose your name in a family album,” she observes, introducing Stoppard’s main concern in this play: remembering family.

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