Cyril Nri Will Lead DEATH OF A SALESMAN at Liverpool Everyman

 

This September, the Liverpool Everyman will revisit Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The production, which runs from 19 September to 10 October (press night 24 September), will star Cyril Nri (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), as Willy Loman, alongside Tayo Aluko (Uncle Ben), Adelaide Banks (The Woman), Emma Cater (Linda), Kiren Kebaili-Dwyer (Happy), Noah Olaoye (Bernard / Howard Wagner), Joe Speare (Charley / Stanley), Lawrence Ubong Williams (Biff), and is directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu. (For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy and Deep Azure).  Death Of A Salesman lays bare a family at breaking point and a man wrestling with his own sense of worth.

Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu said, 'Willy is a migrant and, like many migrants, is sold a dream, whether that be American or in the UK. You can make your mark, stake your claim - but the dream doesn't always become reality, and there can be repercussions.  Willy also battles generational conflict: how do fathers and sons relate, and if the gap is too wide, can they ever meet in the middle to fulfil their potential?

Liverpool, like Brooklyn (where the play is set), is rich in Irish and Nigerian heritage and in mixed-race populations.  It's important to me that this production is being performed in Liverpool, engaging with local audiences, and exploring what blackness and the migrant experience is across the UK.

For many generations, people have chased the American dream. Journeying across continents, they made America their home – where success was a promise, but the golden future was always a few more pay cheques away. 

Willy Loman chased that dream too, but now time is running out, and his precious future is still slipping from his grasp. He's been the model immigrant, raised his family as good Americans and done his best to be well-liked. So why does his wife feel she's at breaking point? And why don't his sons want to follow his path? 

Death of a Salesman is both contemporary and timeless – an unforgettable classic reimagined for the Everyman by acclaimed director Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu. Seamlessly weaving past and present into one of theatre's most enduring stories, Death of a Salesman reveals a family in turmoil, and a man fighting with his own sense of worth. 

Biographies

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) was born in New York City and studied at the University of Michigan. His plays include The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), A View from the Bridge and A Memory of Two Mondays (1955), After the Fall (1964), Incident at Vichy (1964), The Price (1968), The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977), The American Clock (1980) and Playing for Time (1980). Later plays include The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), The Last Yankee (1993), Broken Glass (1994), Mr Peters' Connections (1998) and Resurrection Blues (2002). Among his other works are Situation Normal (1944), the novel Focus (1945), the screenplay The Misfits (1960), and texts for In Russia (1969), In the Country (1977), and Chinese Encounters (1979), three books in collaboration with his wife, photographer Inge Morath. Memoirs include 'Salesman' in Beijing (1984), and Timebends, an autobiography (1987). Short fiction includes the collection I Don't Need You Any More (1967), the novella Homely Girl, a Life (1995) and Presence: Stories (2007). Essay collections published in his lifetime include The Theatre Essays of Arthur Miller (1978) and Echoes Down the Corridor: Collected Essays 1944–2000, as well as individually published volumes, 'The Crucible' in History (2000) and On Politics and the Art of Acting (2001). He was awarded the Avery Hopwood Award for Playwriting at the University of Michigan in 1936.  He won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award twice, received two Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, and received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.  He was named Jefferson Lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2001. Among other honours, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu is a British-Ghanaian theatremaker whose work stretches his audiences' imaginations with his unique brand of storytelling. He was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2022 for his work on For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy by Ryan Calais Cameron. 

As director, theatre includes: Deep Azure (Shakespeare's Globe); Pig Heart Boy (Unicorn/Fiery Angel Tour); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Nouveau Riche/Boundless/New Diorama & Royal Court Theatre); Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree); Twilight (St. Mary's University); The Spalding Suite (LAMDA); Gone Too Far! (Guildhall); and Bootycandy (Gate Theatre). As a writer/director, theatre includes Sweet Like Chocolate Boy (Jack Studio/BAC/Tobacco Factory/Theatre Peckham); Sundown Kiki (Young Vic); Divine (Arts Ed); and Hyde & Seek (Guildhall). As writer: Rumble In The Jungle (Rematch Ltd). 

Awards include: 2025 UK Theatre Award for Best Show for Children & Young People, 2019 JMK Young Director Award, 2022 Black British Theatre Award for Best Director, 2024 WXO Award for Excellence in Art and a Blooloop Innovation Award 2024. Tristan was awarded the prestigious Arts Foundation Futures Award 2026.  

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