Friday Night: It's Miller Time
Last night was evidently some kind of "National Free Night of Theater" (not to be confused with today's "National Free Night of Striking Stagehands Shutting Down Broadway") which interested me insofar as it was possible to get free tickets to New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre for a four-person Arthur Miller play called "The Price." Occasionally it occurs to me that I never see any theater, and that I probably should try to see theater more often, so this was good news.
Long Wharf Theatre is located in New Haven's meatpacking district, which is smaller and notably less trendy than New York City's meatpacking district.
I don't know how well-known or often performed "The Price" is. All I know Arthur Miller from is reading "Death of a Salesman" and "All My Sons" in high school, and seeing Bolcom's opera version of "A View from the Bridge" last week. (Incidentally, seeing an opera and then a play by the same writer will show you, very quickly, how capable opera librettos are at draining dramatic immediacy out of a story.) "The Price" is from 1967; the story concerns two estranged brothers (policeman Victor, the central character; rich surgeon Walter) in their 50s who meet for the first time in 16 years while trying to sell an apartment full of old furniture left over from their years-dead father, since the building is about to be demolished.
It's kind of an oddly-shaped play. The first half is surprisingly comedic, mostly focusing on Victor and the 89-year-old, cartoonishly Jewish furniture salesman he's called for an appraisal. (Cartoonish in mannerism, at least. Fortunately the play doesn't push out into squirmier territory, considering one of the main plot points involves whether Victor is getting a fair price for the stuff.) Then in the second half Walter arrives, and suddenly you've got Arthur Miller there in full brilliance, running this long scene where the two brothers alternately try to disentangle their family past and attack each other over it, fleshing out a miraculously realistic sense of a deep personal history that can't be assigned a single truthful interpretation. If you define a good piece of writing as one that gives the illusion of its characters' existence seeming to extend beyond their immediate portrayal, this is a tour de force. Both actors were quite good here, I think.
So that was worth seeing. Also, as the program book noted, the guy who played the furniture salesman (David Margulies) was also the mayor of New York City in both Ghostbusters movies, and he also appeared in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. (Tell me he doesn't totally steal that scene from Jim Carrey.) It probably marks me as a regional theater philistine to gleefully find out the bit parts that actors have played in Hollywood movies, but, what can you do.
Arthur Miller plays will also make you grateful that your family relationships aren't fraught with peril. Hey everyone, thanks for not being estranged!!!
Long Wharf Theatre is located in New Haven's meatpacking district, which is smaller and notably less trendy than New York City's meatpacking district.
I don't know how well-known or often performed "The Price" is. All I know Arthur Miller from is reading "Death of a Salesman" and "All My Sons" in high school, and seeing Bolcom's opera version of "A View from the Bridge" last week. (Incidentally, seeing an opera and then a play by the same writer will show you, very quickly, how capable opera librettos are at draining dramatic immediacy out of a story.) "The Price" is from 1967; the story concerns two estranged brothers (policeman Victor, the central character; rich surgeon Walter) in their 50s who meet for the first time in 16 years while trying to sell an apartment full of old furniture left over from their years-dead father, since the building is about to be demolished.
It's kind of an oddly-shaped play. The first half is surprisingly comedic, mostly focusing on Victor and the 89-year-old, cartoonishly Jewish furniture salesman he's called for an appraisal. (Cartoonish in mannerism, at least. Fortunately the play doesn't push out into squirmier territory, considering one of the main plot points involves whether Victor is getting a fair price for the stuff.) Then in the second half Walter arrives, and suddenly you've got Arthur Miller there in full brilliance, running this long scene where the two brothers alternately try to disentangle their family past and attack each other over it, fleshing out a miraculously realistic sense of a deep personal history that can't be assigned a single truthful interpretation. If you define a good piece of writing as one that gives the illusion of its characters' existence seeming to extend beyond their immediate portrayal, this is a tour de force. Both actors were quite good here, I think.
So that was worth seeing. Also, as the program book noted, the guy who played the furniture salesman (David Margulies) was also the mayor of New York City in both Ghostbusters movies, and he also appeared in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. (Tell me he doesn't totally steal that scene from Jim Carrey.) It probably marks me as a regional theater philistine to gleefully find out the bit parts that actors have played in Hollywood movies, but, what can you do.
Arthur Miller plays will also make you grateful that your family relationships aren't fraught with peril. Hey everyone, thanks for not being estranged!!!
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