The Death of a sakesman

Death of a salesman

I chose the Death of a salesman to be my theatre production for next year. I wanted to choose some that is dark sided and we haven’t talked about it in the class. Although I am not familiar with this book and theatre. I think the title attracted me into it, wanting to do this director’s notebook. Also, when I searched online, this book was in the first place, so I want to have a look how can it be interested. It’s similar to the Glass Menagerie because the narrator is in the story as well. This book was written by Arthur Miller in 1940s.  In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman is an old salesman who is tired of his travelling salesman jobs. He had 2 sons, one named Happy and one is Biff. His wife constantly let him to change his job to a New York salesman. However, he gets fired from his job because of his fantasy, imagining he is talking to his brother Ben, yet his brother died long time ago. As the play goes on, he lost his job because he thought he was talking to his brother Ben. When his son Biff admits that he couldn't get a loan to start the new family business, Willy commits suicide so that Biff can use the insurance money to secure his future. Willy expresses disappointment with his son Biff, who's unable to find a job at the beginning of the play. A series of flashbacks reveals Willy’s thoughts of suicide, which his sons dispel by promising to go into business together. This play is filled with desperate and the image. The desperate comes from Willy and his family members. Willy is a salesman in a company for 35 years. Yet, he begins to have troubles of recognizing the roads, lights and he always fails for selling things to the customers. That’s not the only thing he fails to. The other thing is his son Biff. He is 35 years old, but he has no job and career. However, Willy thinks that his son is talented enough to have his own business. On the one hand, he believes that his son is good at playing sports. However, his son is actually not talented enough; he doesn’t have any ambitious plan, but to have a ranches of himself. As a result, we can see his desperation of the family. His losing job from salesman, and also his son couldn’t get enough money to open a new company. Another themes are the focus in this play is imagination. Willy is the main character of the play, but he always imagine his death brother, talking to him. However, he died already. As a result, I might look more onto the desperation of Willy and his imagination as the main themes. In order to emphasize those themes, I will make the house darker, giving us the ideas of desperation and dreadful. However, in his memory or the imagination, he can be extremely happy to point out his willingness of meeting his brother. Thereby, the lighting can be slightly brighter.

On the other hand, I only looked at the summary of this book, so I don’t actually feel the emotions or connections in the play. As a result, I think I have to look in toward the book to see if there is any other themes or misleading details in the book. I have to check the book to see my themes are correct and what will I do next. However, that’s when I can get the hard copied book in China. I will definitely read it through, contemplating the meaning of the reading and play. Scheming my plan for specific acts and plays.