As his acclaimed production of Death of a Salesman comes to Dublin's Gaiety Theatre, director Andy Arnold explores the timeless appeal of Arthur Miller's classic play.
Great plays of the past work with modern audiences for different reasons. We don't identify with the principal characters in a Greek tragedy such as Medea or with Shakespeare’s Macbeth but the stories can still deeply affect a modern audience.
Death of a Salesman was first staged over 75 years ago. It still resonates, not simply because it is a brilliantly crafted and beautifully written play, but because it focuses on issues which affect everyone everywhere now and for all of time.
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Actor David Hayman talks Death Of A Salesman with RTÉ Arena
The principal character, Willy Loman, is on the verge of losing his job – a job which represents who he is – and his pride won’t allow him to admit to his family, or to his friends, or to himself, that he is not the person he thinks he is. As his mind deteriorates, he believes that he is better off dead than alive since his life insurance will deliver a kind of financial security to his loved ones. Suicide, particularly male suicide, is on the increase in western society and is still brought about by the types of pressures that Loman faced.
Willy has spent his whole life saying whatever was necessary to make the sale – whether what he says is truth or fiction.
Family tensions in this play are also matters which we all experience and can identify with. In Willy Loman's case it is the battle with his eldest son, Biff, who has turned against him and gone his own way in life – the play reveals why – and yet, amongst the conflict, there is the need to seek approval – Biff seeking Willy’s approval and Willy wanting Biff to recognise what he, Willy, has achieved in life. Willy even sees his death as a means to enable this –" He thinks I’m nothing and so he spites me. But the funeral…that funeral will be massive – I am known, Ben, and he’ll see it with his eyes once and for all. He’ll see what I am, Ben! He’s in for a shock that boy!" Willy is talking here to his brother Ben who is long since dead but who he conjures up in his imagination.
The play was originally called The Inside of His Head and the conversations he has with his dead brother are replicated with other conversations from the past and which punctuate the play throughout. Willy is clearly suffering from some form of dementia and, from the beginning of the drama, his wife and sons discuss how much he talks to himself and how it is getting progressively worse. Such conditions in older family members are familiar to most people these days and, indeed, are spoken about more openly now than they were when the play was first staged.
Lastly, it’s important to remember that Willy’s job is a salesman… "and for a salesman there is no rock bottom to life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back – that’s an earthquake". Like another salesman, Roma, in Glengarry Glen Ross, Willy has spent his whole life saying whatever was necessary to make the sale – whether what he says is truth or fiction. That culture resonates today more than ever in the world of Trump – a world where factual accuracy is almost completely irrelevant – just tell the people what they want to hear.
Death of A Salesman is at the Gaiety Theatre from 15-19 April 2025 - find out more here.
