Review: DEATH OF A SALESMAN at The Pocket Community Theatre Finishes the Run of the Show to a Pleased Audience

It is always a treat when I can travel down to my favorite Arkansas city and see my newest favorite theatre troupe perform yet another impressive show. The Pocket Community Theatre, 170 Ravine St, in Hot Springs, just wrapped up DEATH OF A SALESMAN to a pretty good-sized crowd. And as I was eavesdropping on my fellow audience members, the group opinion had a resounding love for the performance.

Written by Arthur Miller, DEATH OF A SALEMAN covers a few pretty serious themes in this play, and though I will not be analyzing this like a high school paper (sorry Mrs. Smith), I will give you a brief rundown on the characters. Willy Loman (Steven Mitchell), a traveling salesman by trade, is aging, going a little crazy, and yearns for a better life for his family. He thinks he is worth more dead than alive, and suicide is touched upon several times. His wife Linda (Barbara Morgan) is a stand by her man kind of woman, even though he lacks respect for her quite a bit. On this particular day of their life, their sons Happy (Sean Blakley) and Biff (Peter Emery) are home, and Willy flashes back and forth from the present to the past. Willy is tough on Biff, because he thinks his son is not living up to his business potential. Biff is resentful, due to the fact that he caught his father with another woman (Christi Day) a long time ago. Charley (Ricko Donovan) is the neighbor that helps the family out during their financial difficulties, and his son Bernard (Sutter Gillette) idolized Willy's sons when they were younger but has since become a successful lawyer. Jenny (Allyson Marx) is Charley's secretary that notices Willy talking to himself in the hallway. Uncle Ben (Marx Mitchell) has already passed away and shows up when Willy is searching for answers and guidance to life. Howard Wagner (Steve Fryar) is Willy's boss, who fires him when Willy tries to get a job where he doesn't have to travel. Miss Forsythe (Lilie Lim) and her friend are the girls the sons meet at the restaurant. They decide to leave with them and abandons Willie there by himself, hanging with Stanley (Keith Bell), who is the waiter at the restaurant.

Tackling a classic such as DEATH OF A SALESMAN is ambitious. If the timing and beat of the play is not executed correctly, the whole point of the play can be lost on the audience. Thankfully, Director Kevin Day and the actors in this play championed the challenge. They were skillful in their deliveries, mindful of the period piece, and even embraced the dialect. The cast kept our attention through the entire performance and even had us discussing it during intermission. Mitchell was brilliant with his interpretation of Willy. He went from being confused and talking to himself or to people who was supposed to be dead, to trying to manage his grown sons' lives fluidly. You couldn't help but have compassion for Morgan's Linda as she tried to take care of her husband. And Blakley and Emery transitioned from the past and present scenes going on in Willy's head effortlessly. I'd also like to point out that Marx Mitchell seemed to have a larger-than-life presence on the stage. He seemed almost God-like, which is understandable since he led Willy into the afterlife.

Up next at the Pocket Community Theatre is A CHRISTMAS STORY, directed by James Kendall. This show runs the first two weekends of December. For more information and tickets, visit their website at www.pockettheatre.com.

Thank you to Leighton Hall for the use of the pictures.

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