Review: Death of a Salesman at LOWRY is ‘brutal, tense and a timely examination of the American dream’

LOWRY welcomes Arthur Miller’s classic “Death of a Salesman”, a two-piece tragedy set in the 1940’s, during the Great Depression.

The play centres around Willy Loman, who is a struggling salesman whose pursuit of the American Dream has led to disappointment and despair.

Death of a Salesman at LOWRY

The tale explores the brutal portrayal of family dynamics and self-worth, and the play critiques the myth of success in mid-20th-century America.

The legendary David Hayman delivers a captivating performance, with each line of dialogue flowing seamlessly, anchoring the production with a raw intensity that never wavers.

David Hayman as Willy Loman

His portrayal of Willy Loman is powerful and marked by a delivery that captures every nuance of the character’s turmoil.

Hayman handles the play’s weighty dialogue with remarkable consistency, navigating it’s emotional highs and lows with a deftness that keeps the audience fully engaged from start to finish.

His presence on stage is commanding, drawing viewers into Willy’s unravelling world with each word and gesture.

Daniel Cahill’s Biff Loman

Daniel Cahill’s portrayal of Biff Loman will keep you tense as you sense the conflict between him and his father.

You see his character develop from aggressive to understanding where the aggression has come from, with you eventually feeling sorry for him.

Cahill brings a brilliant performance, without a single flaw in his dialogue.

Rory Beaton’s evocative lighting design, in tandem with the play’s fluid dialogue which facilitates the audience’s navigation between memory and reality.

The subtle shifts in lighting, sometimes warm and nostalgic, other times stark and cold, signal transitions in time and mental state, enhancing the psychological depth of the narrative.

Beaton’s lighting, combined with the naturalistic flow of the dialogue, allows scenes from the past to emerge organically within the present, creating a dreamlike continuity that mirrors Willy Loman’s fractured perception of his life.

Neil Haynes’ minimalist set design effectively establishes a timeless and understated atmosphere, allowing the fluid shifts between past and present to unfold seamlessly.

The sparse arrangement of limited furniture and muted colour palette reflect the emotional emptiness of the Loman household, while the unchanging nature of the set subtly underscores the play’s central theme, the illusion of progress in a life and the empty chase the salesman has.

By not having elaborate set changes, Haynes reinforces the sense that, despite the passage of time, nothing substantial has truly changed for the characters.

“the play still resonates today in our superficial society”

Despite being written decades ago, the play still resonates today in a society where success is often measured in superficial terms.

I would recommend this play to a mature audience, as it explores themes such as money, family relationships and suicide.

However, this is a classic that should be seen by everyone, once in their lives.

Tickets for Death of a Salesman at LOWRY

Death of a Salesman is on at LOWRY until 3rd May 2025. You can get a tickets by clicking here.