Review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN Opens at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre

Brooklyn, 1949. 63-year-old traveling salesman Willy Loman wrestles with his personal demons and the impending end of his career. His wife, Linda, struggles to be a beacon of positivity while their adult sons, Biff and Happy, are stuck back in their shared childhood bedroom after over a decade of job-hopping. So begins Arthur Miller’s 1949 drama, Death of a Salesman. Directed by Daryl Cloran, the Citadel Theatre’s adaptation features an outstanding cast, striking sets, and an onstage band. 

Before the curtain rises, the audience is greeted by the sight of the Lomans’ working-class home. Designed by Beyata Hackborn, the set features a sparsely furnished kitchen backed by a looming, window-lined brick wall. The muted color palette’s greys, browns, and whites carry over throughout the show, heightening the story’s somber themes. Paired with Bonnie Beecher’s stark lighting, the Lomans’ home has an almost-eerie quality that intensifies during the production. 

Leading the cast are Citadel veterans John Ullyatt and Nadien Chu as Willy and Linda. Both performers deliver heart-rending performances: Ullyatt embodies Willy’s fear, ambition, and intense yearning for the past. It is difficult to watch as he wanders from room to room, talking to his long-dead brother, Ben (Andrew Wheeler), alienates his best and only friend, Charley (Anthony Santiago), and loses his job. Chu’s portrayal of a cautiously optimistic Linda gradually gives way to fear, anger, and helplessness as Willy’s lapses in memory and judgment worsen. Rounding out the leading cast are Nathan Kay and Alexander Ariate as polar-opposite brothers, Biff and Happy. Biff, a 34-year-old aspiring farmer, still longs for his high school football glory days while Happy is content to go with the flow and romance as many women as possible. The brothers’ teenage selves appear in the play’s flashbacks, which hint at the vastly different paths their lives could have taken. 

Though written over 70 years ago, Death of a Salesman’s themes of ambition, hope, fear, and grief still resonate with modern audiences. It plays at the Citadel’s Shoctor Theatre until February 15.