10 August − 07 September

Tuesday, Wednesday 6.30pm

Thursday – Saturday 8pm

Sunday 4pm

$46 Adults

$38 Concessions

$33 Friends of Circa (until 25 August)

$39 Groups 6+

$36 Groups 20+

$25 Under 25s

The Price worth the long preamble

BY LAURIE ATKINSON, THE DOMINION POST, 13 AUGUST 2013

Susan Wilson has triumphed yet again with a compelling production of an Arthur Miller play.

With The Price we are in familiar Miller territory: New York, sibling rivalry, the aftershocks of the Great Depression, American materialism and its corrosive effects on ordinary lives, the search for truth, and the destruction of illusions.

Tennessee Williams’ characters only survive by clinging to their illusions; Miller’s characters only survive by stripping away their illusions whatever the cost until the truth is found. A price will be paid.

This well-made play takes place in a marvellously cluttered attic of a Manhattan brownstone about to be bulldozed (set design John Hodgkins). Victor, a New York policeman, wants to sell his father’s old-fashioned furniture. He has arranged for a dealer to assess its value and offer a price.

While Victor and his wife Esther wait for the dealer, they talk. Miller takes about 30 minutes to set up the exposition necessary for the rest of the play to make sense, which means a long duologue and a slow start to the play, despite good performances from Gavin Rutherford and Jude Gibson.

But once the dealer arrives the play takes off and never loosens its grip on the audience. Gregory Solomon is the only comic character in Miller’s plays and he is a charmer. Ray Henwood gives a lovely performance as the funny, irascible, wise old man. He could walk away with the play but he stays part of an ensemble and never stoops to caricature.

The fourth character is Victor’s long estranged brother, Walter, a successful surgeon who became wealthy while Victor stayed home and cared for their father after their world was destroyed by the Depression. The denouement after the two brothers have parried the family secrets in an absorbing duel is as exciting as any melodrama when the truth is finally revealed and what price was paid.

Rutherford’s perplexed, decent policeman is nicely contrasted with Christopher Brougham’s suave, imperious surgeon. Their explosions of anger are riveting. Gibson finds exactly the right tones for the unsympathetic role of Esther so that she makes her much more than just a frustrated, nagging wife. This ensemble cast give impeccable performances.

OTHER REVIEWS

John Smythe, Theatreview, 11 August 2013

Elspeth Sandys, New Zealand Listener, 15 August, 2013