Riches to Rags, Dreams to Dust:

A Staging of Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman,

Penguin edition pp 27-41

Why This Scene?

This is Willy's first memory scene, when he slips from the difficulties of his present into pleasant recollections of his past. Yet this segment of the play also demonstrates the dichotomies between Willy's ideals and actions, between his sunny, overly optimistic outlook and the grim underlying reality. The idyllic family scenes which open the play soon give way to business troubles, tight money, the temptations of The Woman in Boston, Biff's problems in school -- in short, all the issues which bedevil Willy into his eventual suicide. It is our first introduction to the real causes of unhappiness in the Loman family.

The Cast:

    Willy Loman     Peter Sxxxxxx
    Linda           Angela Hxxx 
    Biff            Colin Bxxx
    Happy           Terry Hxxxxx
    Bernard         Reed Oxxxxx
    The Woman       Jennifer Kxxxx

I have cast the scene entirely from actors currently available on the Rice campus, since they are some of the only actors with whose work and capabilities I can really claim familiarity. Willy Loman is an extremely challenging role, but I think Peter Sxxxxxx would carry it off as well or better than anyone else on campus. Perhaps I am just comparing him with Dustin Hoffman, another Jewish actor and one who performed spendidly in the part on Broadway, but Peter's understanding of text, play and interpretation, both dramatic and literary, make him a fine fit for such a hard role. Willy's wife Linda must be sympathetic and strong by turns, and not too overshadowed by Willy -- Angela Hxxx , a young actress who shows many of the same traits as the young Samantha Hendren from years ago, seems another apt choice. Her superb performance in last year's Lie of the Mind, her upcoming role as Raina in Arms and the Man, and the good work I have seen her do in classes and auditions indicate to me that she could hold her own in the part.

Biff and Happy are similarly challenging roles in this monster of a play -- perhaps one reason no-one has dared produce it (to my knowledge) on the Rice campus! Colin Bxxx and Terry Hxxxxx strike me as good selections for the two sons. They have a history of working well together (exemplified by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead two years ago), as well as being capable and talented actors in their own right. Colin has some of the intensity and passion necessary for the tortured Biff, and the talent to navigate the character's passage from obliviousness to understanding of the fakery that pervades the Loman philosophy. And Terry's comic talent would bring the house down when Happy makes his more absurd pronouncements ("I'm gonna get married, Mom," (p. 68), among numerous others). Yet Terry also has the serious intensity necessary for Happy's abandonment of his father for the "chippies" in Act II.

Bernard and The Woman are minor, though important, roles in the scene I have chosen. Reed Oxxxxx strikes me as a good Bernard -- though I have some problems with his acting style (rather too florid for my taste, and not tied down enough to character interaction and motivation) his energy will serve well for the bustling Bernard, and his round glasses convey the proper bookish air. Jennifer Kxxxx is a young woman from Sandy Haven's Acting I class this year and of some small acting experience around campus. I have picked her as The Woman because she is pretty, but not too pretty, and a bit fleshy like the kind of woman I see Willy dallying with.

Set and Costumes:

Arthur Miller describes a fairly complete set design in his opening stage directions for Death of a Salesman. Since I am envisaging a performance on the Hamman Hall stage, a proscenium stage with thrust apron (like that described in the script), Miller's set seems more than sufficient.

At center is a foot-high platform, the house's kitchen, with a dinette set (table and three chairs) in the middle and a refrigerator, sink, and counters against the back wall. Also in the back wall is an open door with blacks concealing the "living room." To stage left is a door frame leading "outside" to a vacant area of stage and, behind that, stairs leading up to the boy's bedroom.

To stage right, on a two-foot riser, is Willy and Linda's bedroom. A double bed (head to stage right) lies in the up right corner of the platform, with a shelf above it on which sits Biff's prized football trophy. The stage right wall contains a window looking out on the surrounding apartments. "Above" (i.e. behind) the kitchen is a six-and-a-half foot platform on which sit the boys' two beds, with a dormer window or two set in a half-height wall at the back of the platform. To stage left is the landing from which stairs descend to the kitchen.

Surrounding the cramped Loman home are harsh silhouettes of the surrounding apartments -- dirty red brick walls with blank, staring windows. I would also like to extend the cloistered feel of the Loman home to the audience: around the perimeter of the hall, surrounding the audience's seats, I would hang more brick-and-window flats -- "the way they boxed us in here. Bricks and windows, windows and bricks" (p. 17). These added set pieces are probably beyond the budget for a typical Players production, but this is a theoretical paper, so why not dream a bit? My least favorite feature of proscenium stages is the distance they produce between actor and audience. The extension of the apartment enclosure would be a way to breach that barrier.

Costumes for the characters should be fairly standard 1940's period clothing (alas, also hard to find for student productions on a budget). Willy should be in his shirt-sleeves, sans coat and tie, since Linda has just helped him partially undress up stairs. A fine quality suit -- of course, for appearances are everything, to Willy -- but uninspired. Biff should be dressed in varsity sweater and athletic pants, with the infamous printed sneakers, and Happy in, probably, shirt and knickers. Drab grey or earth tones for Willy, the tired salesman, but brighter colors for his ideal sons: a blue jacket with red letter for Biff, the all-American boy, and a grey and lighter blue outfit for Hap, the colors a pale shadow of his brother's and a reminder of his father's.

Linda, too, should be younger, brighter, freer: she wears a blouse in a lighter, warmer red and a pleasant brown skirt, with a blue ribbon in her hair. Bernard needs to have tighter-fitting clothes, not the athlete's garb of Biff. Small, circular glasses, a shirt and knickers again, perhaps, and with a tight sweater overlaid, colors in grey and brown to properly depict the "anemic" scholar. The Woman wears a respectable pink dress (both a paler echo of Linda's red and the idyllic rose of the infamous tinted glasses....) and matching hat. The dress should be of a conservative cut, though -- Miller describes The Woman as "proper-looking, Willy's age" (p. 38).

Staging:

I will narrate the blocking (and some of the motivations) for pages 27-41 of the Penguin edition of Miller's play. Following along with a script should prove helpful, since I will gloss lines in which no significant stage movement occurs.

As the scene begins, the lighting is dim over the kitchen, and almost dark over the rest of the stage. Willy is silhouetted in the refrigerator light, rummaging for a late-night glass of milk. He can spend his entire first line (until the next stage direction) in walking to the refrigerator, opening the door, puttering around inside, and taking the milk bottle. The actual act of approaching the table and pouring the milk can take him well into page 28. All these lines, as a monologue, should be very free-form for the actor: alone on stage except for his props, he can vary the routine slightly each night. The importance of the lines lies in the transition to memory, the fading of the current home and the growing reality of the "simonized" car and young boys. And as Willy fades into memory, the lights come up on the kitchen and apron, leaving dark only the bedrooms and the upstage left area where the scrim sits from which The Woman will appear.

Willy sits at the kitchen table and looks out stage left as he speaks, through the imaginary porch and towards the offstage car. Then he gets up and walks downstage (through the imaginary wall of the kitchen) to look up above the apron at the "big trees" for comments on tree-trimming and hammock-hanging, still focusing off stage left for his comments directly to the boys.

Young Biff and Young Happy enter from stage left, walking jauntily after a well-done car wash, one with football and one with cleaning supplies. They stop just at the edge of the stage, pointing back at their handiwork for their father to admire. Happy dashes off to investigate Willy's present, but Biff crosses right to left of center stage to talk with his father. Biff turns back left to call to Hap, then only half turns back (he's now full front) for his "Oh, Pop!" line (p. 29).

Hap runs in with the punching bag, sees his father and brother talking, and lies down to pedal his feet and show off. Now Biff, quite unconsciously, cuts Hap off by finishing his cross towards center, to show off the stolen football. Willy and Biff face each other center stage, and Hap is left alone stage left of them, vainly pedalling the air. He gets up and listens to the succeeding lines, then chimes in to Biff with "I told you he wouldn't like it!" (p. 30), only to be rebuffed by both Biff and Willy before they again ignore him for their short discussion on "initiative."

On "So what's the report, boys, what's the report?" Willy crosses above Biff to between his sons and puts his arms around their shoulders, and then leads them slightly downstage on "Tell you a secret, boys." He removes his arms from their shoulders on "Bigger than Uncle Charley!" to gesture, and then gets engaged by Biff so that he turns away, again, from Hap -- Biff and Willy have now switched positions, but Hap is still left on the outside. Willy ignores Hap's short "Promise?" (p. 31) line, pressing on with his mercantile dream of the Loman family business.

Right after the sons' simultaneous "Yeah! You bet!," Biff takes notice again of the football still in his hand, and starts going through the motions of passing, fading upstage slightly. This activity and Hap's line "We'll carry your bags, Pop!" prompt Willy to turn back facing center (about as close as he comes to actually facing Hap) for his "Oh, won't that be something!" speech, but then he turns back again to Biff with his question "You nervous, Biff, about the game?," and Biff stops mock-passing and takes his father's hand on "This Saturday, Pop...." (p. 32). Hap snipes across his two elders again with "You're supposed to pass," and Biff pays him only enough notice to fire back "I'm takin' one play for Pop" before focusing back on his father. Hap takes a couple of embarassed/proud steps left during Willy's impassioned "Oh, wait'll I tell this in Boston!" to leave space for the next blocking sequence.

Bernard enters in a rush from off stage left, crying "Biff, where are you?" and then stops on seeing the object of his search. He crosses in front of Hap to stand next to Willy on "He's gotta study, Uncle Willy," but Happy grabs his downstage (left) arm and spins him around for a playful boxing match. Bernard calls out "Biff!," requesting help, and Biff, chuckling, crosses in front of Willy (who counter-crosses slightly right behind him) to look Bernard over (Hap immediately stops tormenting him). Willy touches Biff's arm with "You better study with him, Biff," Bernard emphasizes "I heard him!" -- and Biff blithely turns around to show off for his father again, with "Oh, Pop, you didn't see my sneakers!" Another sterling example of the Loman belief in style over substance.

Willy squats to look at the sneakers for "Hey, that's a beautiful job of printing!" and, inspired, rises and crosses in front of the smiling Biff to snap "What're you talking about?" (p. 33) at Bernard. His "Don't be a pest, Bernard!" prompts a hair-ruffle or something from Hap during "What an anemic!," and Bernard retreats stage left with "Okay, I'm waiting for you" as the Lomans laugh. Again we have Willy in the center, with Biff stage right and Hap stage left, and again Willy's attention drifts towards his elder son during his "well liked" speech. Happy again tries to attract attention by pedaling and bragging about his weight -- unsuccessfully.

Linda enters from the upstage "living room" entrance with a basket of laundry, and Willy crosses up to her ("through" the kitchen wall) on "Sweetheart!" (p. 34). Biff's "Grab hold there, boy!" is to Happy, who crosses up, takes the wash basket, and asks "Where to, Mom?" Meanwhile Biff crosses up to the upstage door on "I think I'll have them sweep out the furnace room," and the assembled crew of backstage technicians answer his command to sweep the furnace room with "All right! Okay, Biff." Then Biff and Happy exit stage left with the wash, leaving Linda and Willy gazing admiringly after them from the kitchen. Linda is so caught up with Biff ("Oh, the whole block'll be at that game") that she doesn't notice Willy's brag ("I was sellin' thousands"), only coming back down to earth for "Did you sell anything?"

Here the entire mood of the scene shifts. Bernard has provided some intimations that all is not well in Willy's remembered idyllic world, but from this point on Willy is beset by worries, problems and failures. The actors need to achieve a definite change in the tempo and feel of the scene.

First Linda catches Willy up in a fib about his sales, and they begin discussing finances. Willy crosses up right in the kitchen, glaring at the refrigerator, on "I hope we didn't get stuck on that machine," (p. 35), turning back to Linda with a wearily placating "I know, it's a fine machine" (p. 36). Both look at the roof when discussing it, in nervousness or relief, and then Willy crosses downstage in righteous indignation (but remains within the kitchen) on "I'm not going to pay that man [for the carburetor]!" Willy delivers "They ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car!" in fine oratorical style, to bring to the audience's mind his earlier lavish praise for his Chevrolet. And on "A hundred and twenty dollars!" Willy sinks in shock into a chair at the table.

After "Oh, I'll knock 'em dead next week," Willy at last drinks the glass of milk he poured at the start of the scene (to subtly remind the audience that this is all still a memory), and then stands for the resolution "I'll go to Hartford." But then a beat, and a bit of a sag, for the sad confession of "people don't seem to take to me." In Willy's succeeding lines he wanders downstage onto the apron while Linda darns her stockings. Here, again, the blocking can be somewhat flexible for the actor: Willy is talking to himself as much as to Linda.

As we first hear the laughter of The Woman, the lights begin to come up on a scrim upstage and left of the house. A rear projection light shows us the shadow of The Woman dressing, and the lights fade on Linda in the kitchen. Finally, The Woman comes around the scrim wearing her pink dress. Willy should take a strong left cross on "There's so much I want to make for --" to definitely establish a scene with her. Blocking for this memory is simple and spelled out in the script -- a series of embraces, pulls, and kisses, establishing Willy's extramarital affair. As The Woman departs back behind the scrim, laughing, the lights over Linda and the kitchen come back up again and Willy crosses into them to apologize and then, in guilt, chastise her for mending stockings.

Bernard comes racing in from stage left again ("If he doesn't study..." (p. 39), and here is where Willy's troubles come fast and furious. Willy comes downstage to intercept Bernard in front of the house on "You'll give him the answers!" (p. 40), but Linda gets up from the table and stands behind him on the platform, warning "And he'd better give back that football, Willy, it's not nice." Willy is left confused in the middle, with accusations from all sides, until the returning laugh of The Woman drives him over the edge into harsh words. Bernard backs towards stage left and then turns and runs away. Then Willy steps back onto the kitchen platform to explode at Linda "There's nothing the matter with him!" and drive her crying from the room. The lights dim again, back to their evening level, and Willy is back in the house in the present day, rememembering and ranting to himself until Happy interrupts him for the next scene.

Conclusion:

Willy Loman's first memory scene solidifies what we have come to feel about him from the early moments of the play: more concerned with appearances than realities, he all too often avoids unpleasant truths in favor of constructing a more saccharine history. This first recollection sets up a pattern for the play, of remembered happy times which suddenly turn sour. A series of ignored problems and crises mortally wound the Loman family, and it is Willy's attempts to find what went wrong through the fog and somehow set it right that provide the pathos of the play.