I saw another play on Friday night. It was at 8pm, meaning it would end quite late as it was about two hours long (plus an interval on top of that) and it was horrible weather, freezing cold and wet. Having to walk to and from the venue was a bit of an unpleasant inconvenience in those conditions. However, this play was definitely worth it all.
The Price is a play by Arthur Miller. He is also author of other famous works that I had heard of, like
Death of a Salesman and
The Crucible. The programme notes describe it as "a classic tale of a house divided, which addresses his [Arthur Miller's] concerns of illusion, denial and betrayal."
I guess that due to my youth I haven't yet come across many "classic tales of a house divided," and certainly none that have moved me as much as this performance. As far as the play goes, it was a work of not much plot and very good acting, just the way I like my plays best. The actors played their parts so well that it felt as if the audience was intruding on a very personal family scene, seeing arguments and "dirty laundry" that we weren't meant to see - that nobody was meant to see.
Explaining it all might be a bit confusing, but I will try! The play has four characters, brothers Victor (Gavin Rutherford) and Walter Franz (Christopher Brougham), Victor's wife Esther (Jude Gibson), and an old man, Gregory Solomon (Ray Henwood) who used to work giving appraisals and selling furniture. Victor and Walter have inherited their family's possessions, and Victor has called the old man, (who is almost 90) to give an appraisal and buy the whole houseful of furniture. Victor and Walter haven't spoken in years, however, (although Victor called Walter recently about the matter of selling the furniture, to no response) so Victor and Esther begin doing this on their own.
The set conveyed a very detailed, old-fashioned and cluttered atmosphere, of old memories and old treasures (or junk!) and there was only that one room serving as the set of the entire play.
The old man (who although retired, has responded to Victor's call) is about to buy the furniture from Victor when a spanner is thrown into the works and Walter stops by to visit. Victor works as a policeman, but has always dreamed of doing science. Walter has lived out Victor's dream and is a successful doctor. Family life has been very difficult for them, as Victor felt he sacrificed his life joining the police force to support his father after his mother died, while Walter went off to finish studying science. It comes out that their father may not have needed the help Victor believed, and that Walter had always known this.
As expected this brings up many painful memories and fiery disagreement between the brothers. Esther has to cope with her inner conflicts too, as she has had a very hard time through life with their financial hardship. And even though Walter has come with good intentions (offering Victor an administration job where he works and offering to give Victor a very large sum of money for the furniture, which they could get by using it as a charity donation on Walter's taxes) Victor is unwilling, or unable, to change the way he thinks, and they leave on very unresolved terms. Eventually Victor accepts the old man's cash offer for the furniture and he and Esther leave to go to the cinema as they had previously planned. The play concludes with the old man Solomon sitting in an old chair, playing a "
laughing record"(that Walter had played right at the beginning of the play before the other characters entered) and laughing along hysterically.
The actors were all superb, and I especially enjoyed Ray Henwood's performance as Solomon, the old man. He was probably the most convincing as an American to me, and portraying a Jewish New Yorker no less. The other actors I felt sometimes had little slips in their accents, sometimes using the stereotypical New York inflections and other times using more general American inflections, but their portrayals of the characters, the smooth flow of the dialogue, and the palpable emotional tension more than rectified the tiny details of speech and accent. And I've never lived in New York either, so it's not as if I have the best basis for comparison.
It's one of those plays that makes you think about life, and what really matters, and how easily things can be forgotten, even if they are life-changing...because really they have to be forgotten or life will never go on.
Speaking of forgotten though, I really need to stop going to plays (and other events) set in New York City, or America, it makes me
really want to live there. To go back home (if it is home anymore). Unfortunately, I can't forget how uncomfortable and how not-at-home I feel here in New Zealand. So I got some Hershey's Kisses on the way home, giving in to a little bit of nostalgia at 11pm. (And Solomon mentioning a Hershey's bar in the play did have a part in igniting the craving for American chocolate!) I don't think I like the word "nostalgic" very much, it sounds quite stuffy, old, and undesirable. But I do find it applicable in a lot of my life and I feel it a lot, just as I did as I unwrapped the gold foil on these kisses, savoring a little taste of my old home.
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