Willie Lohman, a salesman in a suit and top hat, walks slowly onto the stage carrying two large boxes, his dignified appearance and anxious tone getting closer and closer to the audience as he steps... Arthur Miller's classic play "The Death of a Salesman" is not diminished in popularity, and it is recently being staged at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, starring Lu Liang and Song Yining. Tickets for all 14 shows in this round have been sold out.
Professor Guo Chenzi of the Department of Drama and Literature at the Shanghai Theater Academy believes that how people re-evaluate Arthur Miller today is an interesting question, "Because we are in an era where the entertainment tide is sweeping in, arthur Miller's somewhat tedious and very spoiler-based playwright era seems to be a bit out of line with today's theater trend." Writing about reality sometimes creates a huge dilemma, we are in reality, so do we have the wisdom to examine our present life from the heart, from the spirit to distance ourselves from it? ”
During his nearly 80-year career, Arthur Miller created many poignant theatrical classics critical of American society, earning him the greatest American dramatic writer of the twentieth century.
Whether it's Death of a Salesman or Salem's Witch, Arthur Miller is always experimenting with different styles of work. After graduating from high school, he could no longer study, so he went to work, worked as a truck driver, worked in various industries, and had a wide range of experiences in the bottom life. His interest has always been in society, and his work has the shadow of news documentary reporting.
The literary critic Harold Bloom once commented that Arthur Miller said that there was a father figure in Arthur Miller. This is importantly reflected in "Death of a Salesman".
Death of a Salesman is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1949, the same year it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award, and the New York Critics Award. It tells the story of the 1930s and 1940s American salesman Willie Lohman in the 24 hours before his death. In his prime, he was reliable and social, his wife Linda ran the house, and his two sons, Biff and Happi, made him proud. However, with the passage of time, his good luck seems to be far away from him, and his life is gradually out of control... The play intersperses the glory of Willie's youth with the loneliness of the present, reflecting the shattering of their generation's "American Dream" with the life dilemma of small people.
Guo Chenzi said that the father in "The Death of a Salesman" is not a very good father, full of moral flaws, full of lies, and even does not let the child speak. He didn't want to hear the truth, he was always willing to live in a dream. But Arthur Miller made a very important statement, saying "I'm not going to make my script lose a little hope," and he was very successful in writing about people's regrets about success and fear of failure.
The three-material drama award work "The Death of the Salesman" is produced by shanghai dramatic arts center, the famous American screenwriter Arthur Miller's peak work, re-translated the script text by Tian Hongyi, directed by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center director Lin Yi, composed by Shi Ling, Zhou Ling'er as the stage designer, and actors Lu Liang, Song Yining, Han Xiuyi, Gu Xin, Zhang Xin, Lan Haimeng, Liu Peng and other stars.
The "house" image that the stage design of "Death of a Salesman" in the past has become an illusion in this play, just like the "success" that the protagonist Willie Lohmann has been asking for. In order to let the audience enter Willie's inner world, remove obstacles, blur boundaries, and transform the stage lighting with a sense of lens, presenting Willie Lohman's vision and thoughts in front of the audience. The styling follows the chronological realistic design described in the script, distinguishing different eras from the details, such as the 1920s American men wearing midsuits and stockings, to the 1950s wearing wide-leg frilled suit pants.
Lu Liang, who plays Willie Lohmann, read the script 40 years ago, and as he grew older, he gradually had a stronger and clearer understanding of the psychology of people under the social environment and social form in the United States at that time reflected by Arthur Miller. ”
Stills were provided by Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
Author: Tong Weijing
Edit: Jiang Fang
Editor-in-Charge: Fan Xin
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.