Cast

Synopsis

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Directors Notes

The original title of this play was, I believe, “Inside His Head”, which admirably explains why the action jumps to and fro in time and place. Much of the play is not really happening, except in Willy’s dream, and these sequences, except for the fatal one, are bathed for him in the golden dream-light of his memory when the sun shone and birds sang in the trees.

Throughout the play, Willy is searching for ‘what went wrong’_-for what it was that turned his dreams to dust. He never finds the answer but his son Biff does, or at least he thinks he does, although Happy would not agree.

These sudden switchings from present to past and back again, create problems. I still remember when I saw Paul Muni in the original London production, the sense of shock when two men, seen in their 30’s, suddenly reappeared as teenagers, and then turned back again, time and time again.

It seems to me that the young boys are totally different people from their older selves, different in appearance but more importantly, different in spirit also. And so you will see that we have a Biff and a Young Biff; a Happy and a Young Happy; a Bernard and a Young Bernard.

Willy and his wife do not change; they remain fundamentally the same people Willy with his dreams and disappointments–Linda with her unfailing love and loyalty towards him.

This play is the work of a master, portraying as it does, not merely the Death of a Salesman, but the universal Human Predicament of modern man.