JENNY MITCHELL, poetry co-editor for the Morning Star, introduces her priorities, and her first selection
Death of a Salesman, Young Vic Theatre, London
Arthur Miller's classic gets a worthy but underpowered production
Indomitable: Sharon D Clarke
[Brinkhoff Mogenburg]
HENRY BELL is sceptical of the notion that ‘progress’ is an ideology that the ruling class uses exclusively to camouflage appropriation
In search of political understanding, MATTHEW HAWKINS welcomes a critique of anti-semitism as codified by the Israeli state
BEN CHACKO welcomes a masterful analysis that puts class struggle back at the heart of our understanding of China’s revolution
JOHN GREEN is intrigued by the ethereal, ghostly quality of images of a London unobscured by the bustle of humanity
JENNY FARRELL relishes an outstanding Palestinian novel that immerses readers in the sensory reality of Gaza, then and now
AI-induced murder, last rites for the mob-dog, a gullible common herd, and an exemplary Christmas chiller
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.
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