A play that defined the 20th Century, Death of a Salesman, is set to open this year’s line-up of the Queensland Theatre 2019 season at the Playhouse in QPAC from 9 February to 2 March.
Queensland Theatre is taking on Arthur Miller’s classic with director Jason Klarwein (My Name is Jimi, Much Ado About Nothing) featuring a star-studded cast, Charles Allen (True West, Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story), Kevin Hides (Composing Venus, A Conversation), Peter Kowitz (Janet King, Crownies), Thomas Larkin (The Wider Earth, Macbeth), Jackson McGovern (The Owl and the Pussycat, Rent –The Musical), Angie Milliken (The Effect, Rake), Sarah Ogden (The Crucible, Moth), Ilai Swindells (SLiDE, Harrow) and Gemma Willing (Tidelands, Wuthering Heights).
The story is about a successful salesman named Willy Loman, who loses sight of what is happening around him. Once the king of the road in his field, Willy starts to veer off. There was a time when Willy could sell anyone anything and his reward was the whole package. The wife, two sons, the car, the white picket fence, but now he is feeling his years. He is behind on the mortgage, he is sidelined by his boss and his adult son Biff – who was once a sporting prodigy and is now a directionless disappointment, lands on the doorstep. As Willy’s life seems to be crumbling around him, he starts to lose his grip on the reality of his broken-down life.
As said to be one of the greatest plays ever written, it is a powerhouse start to season 2019 of the Queensland Theatre. The play is seen as even more relevant today than perhaps it was when originally penned. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, is widely lauded as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, winning a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play in 1949.
It has been revived on Broadway four times and adapted for cinema and television, resulting in an influx of awards with every incarnation. Willy Loman, is one of the most iconic American characters and has been played by legends of the stage and on-screen, including Dustin Hoffman, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Lloyd.
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