A Defi to Fate

By T.E.K.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

by ARTHUR MILLER

To make an extraordinary man of Willy Loman goes against the grain of the text, but George C. Scott has done just that and achieved a performance of staggering impact.

Scott's transmutation of the character is remarkable. When his head is bowed, it is not in resignation but rather like that of a bull bloodied by the picador yet ready to charge again. Where the lines have Willy on the verge of whining, Scott roars out a defi to a malignant fate. Never has the father in Willy come across so forcefully. His boys Biff and Happy, finely played by James Farentino and Harvey Keitel, are inextricably involved with this man. They cannot ignore him since his passionate concern for them and their future is so movingly transparent. Only Teresa Wright, as Willy's wife Linda, seems to lack the needed gravity for her role.

As director, Scott is equally extraordinary. Movement on the long oblong stage of the Circle in the Square/Joseph E. Levine Theater requires something like traffic control to keep the actors from drifting out of rapport with the audience. With the aid of Thomas Skelton's spotlighting, Scott concentrates the focus and heightens the emotional pitch of the play. Its theme comes across with blinding clarity -- failure is the only sin Americans will not forgive. And Miller's language, often criticized as pedestrian, has been scoured to spareness since 1949. All in all, a redoubtable revival of a masterwork of the American theater.

T.E.K.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.