Clearing a loved-one’s belongings can be a costly venture, but that price knows no limits when it comes to familial fractions in this extraordinarily moving, and often comic, drama by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller’s 1967 drama is aptly named. The title recurs throughout, both literally and figuratively. Although money – what it can buy, the consequences of the lack of it – is one obvious meaning, at the centre of this masterpiece is the emotional price paid by those obsessed with material gain. The implications of too much or too little wealth are at the heart of the action, sometimes subtly, only slowly becoming apparent, and sometimes all too obviously.
The Franz brothers are at the centre of Miller’s conundrum. In a New York attic full of furniture and clutter, Victor, a New York cop in uniform (played with subtlety by Elliot Cowan, who gradually reveals the decency hidden behind his tough cop exterior) is trying to get a handle on disposing of his late father’s possessions, stored haphazardly in his former abode. His wife Esther looks on dubiously, until the arrival of Gregory Solomon, a voluble dodgy dealer that Victor has found to size up what the horde is worth (and whose mission is to offer as little as possible for it). Esther, appalled, leaves abruptly in search of shops. Faye Castelow fills the role perfectly of this often exasperated and frustrated, though still loving wife.
Henry Goodman is extraordinary as Solomon, in a mercurial performance full of energy, both physical and vocal. It’s hard to take your eyes off him as he shifts his focus, summing up the monetary value of possessions including a full-size harp, phonograph and a warren of furniture crowded together beneath the eaves of this Manhattan brownstone. Goodman is hilariously at home in a lively Yiddish intonation and accent, occasionally rummaging in his bag for snacks (to offset a "physical problem", he explains, as he downs a Hershey's chocolate bar).
We do not get to meet the other Franz brother, Walter, until after the interval. This was a coup de théâtre for Miller. After building anticipation about Walter's imminent arrival, it becomes clear that this wealthy, confident, possibly wheeler-dealing sibling, would like to be seen as a sort of deus ex machina, arriving to sort out lives the way Solomon sorts out furniture. Revelations follow, however, to show he is not necessarily the saviour as whom he wants to be hailed. John Hopkins nails the role of Walter, who is supremely self-centred, with energy and a convincing dose of overconfidence.
Designer Jon Bausor’s wonderfully detailed and dangerously crowded period set, and his eye-catching costumes, perfectly capture the precariousness of this overcrowded attic. The Price is a revelatory tragicomedy about inheritance, both actual and metaphorical, that director Jonathan Munby has translated into a perfectly multi-layered and mesmerising play.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Mark Senior
The Price runs until Sunday 7 June. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Sat & Sun only). From £19.50. Marylebone Theatre, London, NW1 6XT. marylebonetheatre.com