Exploring how memories, whether accurate or formed over time, create our own ideological responses to social injustice, the price attached to care and the division that money, position, and wealth can, and often do, carve between siblings, Arthur Miller’s The Price is another sure-fire hit for Marylebone Theatre.
Everything in life comes with a price tag. In many ways, it’s always been like that, right from the moment humans took their first steps and learned to barter and exchange goods. But with the relentless rise of capitalism, that price tag has only increased, whether it be the price of our choices, the price of our allegiances, or the price attached to the career we dedicate the majority of our lives to. Hell, even our family relationships have a price tag, something that often comes to the fore when children squabble over the possessions, property and money left to them by their parents.
Arthur Miller’s lesser-known play, The Price, not only reflects upon the price tags that surround us throughout our lives, but also on the destructive influence of money on family, trust, and the bonds of blood that bind us. Although it is set in ’60s America, with a backdrop of the Great Depression, this play speaks directly to our modern world as much as to its period setting.
The set-up initially appears to be a rather simple affair. Victor Franz (Elliot Cowan), a New York cop approaching fifty, under pressure to retire from his wife, Esther (Faye Castelow), stands in a dusty loft full of furniture and memories. The loft has sat untouched ever since Victor’s dad died, and the furniture it houses is the lasting legacy of a man who lost everything during the Great Depression and later relied on his son to care for him in the final years of his life.
As Victor rummages through the items, he knows his life has reached a turning point, but he’s not sure how to navigate it. Enter 89-year-old furniture dealer Gregory Solomon (Henry Goodman), whom Victor has invited to appraise the items and offer a price for everything before the building is demolished. However, what begins as a dance between an earnest New York cop and a wily furniture dealer intent on overstaying his welcome soon morphs into something else: the tale of two brothers, divided by wealth, secrets and lies, and a controlling and manipulative father who exacted a price from them both.
Jonathan Munby’s adaptation of The Price comes at a time when Arthur Miller revivals have wowed audiences in the West End, from the Olivier award-winning All My Sons to Broken Glass at the Young Vic, and the upcoming revival of Death of a Salesman, starring Paul Mescal and directed by Rebecca Frecknall at the National Theatre. There’s a reason Miller’s work is seeing such a resurgence: our world teeters on the edge of social and financial collapse, as millionaires and billionaires rewrite the post-World War II political order with little interest in social progress beyond their own bottom line. Miller’s work talks directly to this while wrapping us in family-centred tales of tragedy, moral ambiguity, corruption and social inequality.
The Price may not have received the same attention over the years as Miller’s other works, but as Munby and a truly exceptional cast prove, it’s a play that carries equal bite and fervour, despite a second act that at times feels slightly too long.
Split into two tonally distinctive acts, every minute of Munby’s adaptation keeps your eyes glued to the stage, from Jon Bausor’s exquisite set design to the sublime and riveting performances of Cowan, Goodman, Hopkins and Castelow. This is a play so captivating in its dramatic power that time stands still as you step into Franz’s attic, a silent, ghostly observer of two brothers facing the demons of their past, while an ageing furniture salesman attempts to make a killer deal.
From the humour of the first act, where Victor and Gregory jostle over the intricacies of second-hand furniture sales while lightly touching on the backstory about to explode, to Walter’s (John Hopkins) arrival mid-deal and the emotional power of the family confrontation that forms the second act, The Price is enthralling.
Exploring how memories, whether accurate or formed over time, create our own ideological responses to social injustice, the price attached to care and the division that money, position, and wealth can, and often do, carve between siblings, Arthur Miller’s The Price is another sure-fire hit for Marylebone Theatre.
Arthur Miller’s The Price is playing at the Marylebone Theatre until June 7. Book Tickets.
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