Skip to main content
Death of a Salesman, Young Vic Theatre, London
Arthur Miller's classic gets a worthy but underpowered production
PIC CAP Indomitable: Sharon D Clarke Pic: Brinkhoff Mogenburg

THE impromptu Arthur Miller season of six of his plays performed in Britain since the start of the year culminates in this production, with an all-star cast led by Wendell Pierce of The Wire and Suits fame and directed by the multiaward-winning duo of Marianne Elliott and Miranda Cromwell.

But for all that star power this Death of a Salesman falls a little short of its sales pitch.

Anna Fleischle’s brutalist concrete set is where the cracks begin to surface. Trapping the action in such austere confines makes it difficult to imagine the mid-1940s US East Coast where Willy Loman’s life unravels and with the costumes and props so clearly located in the period it’s an anomalous contrast difficult to ignore.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
three
Culture / 15 April 2025
15 April 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
alterations
Theatre Review / 3 March 2025
3 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
Reykjavik
Interview / 5 November 2024
5 November 2024
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to playwright Richard Bean about his new play Reykjavik that depicts the exploitation of the Hull-based “far-fleet” trawlermen
theatre review
Theatre Review / 5 May 2023
5 May 2023
MAYER WAKEFIELD finds himself caught in the crossfire during a riveting piece of activist theatre
Similar stories
punch
Theatre Review / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
MARY CONWAY admires an accomplished drama that explores the consequences of a fatal punch on a desolate housing estate
alterations
Theatre Review / 3 March 2025
3 March 2025
MAYER WAKEFIELD wonders why this 1978 drama merits a revival despite demonstrating that the underlying theme of racism in the UK remains relevant
foxes
Theatre Review / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
MARY CONWAY applauds a worthy revival of the US 1939 classic drama that studies the dehumanising consequences of affluence
young vic
Theatre review / 23 September 2024
23 September 2024
PETER MASON appreciates the songs and spectacle but misses attention-grabbing intrigue in Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of the US movie