Arena Stage makes most of temporary space

Media Credit: SCOTT SUCHMAN / ARENA STAGE FINAL SALE - A cast full of Helen Hays Award winners tackle Arthur Miller's classic tragedy of the common man. The production manages to maximize the temporary space in Crystal City while the permanent theater undergoes renovations by using a minimal set and relying on the actors to bring the character-driven story to life. "Death of a Salesman" performs in repertory with "A View From the Bridge."

Media Credit: SCOTT SUCHMAN / ARENA STAGE SELLING IT - "Death of a Salesman" questions the merit of the American Dream in the tragic tale of Willy Loman. Veteran actor Rick Foucheux wonderfully portrays the exhausted, complex Loman.

It's love that makes a man and love that kills him. This much was clear at Arena Stage Thursday night as the theater presented an American classic, "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller.

The show is playing in repertory with "A View From the Bridge" as part of Arena Stage's Arthur Miller Festival.

"Death of a Salesman" tackles the story of Willy Loman. In short, the performance by two-time Helen Hayes Award-winner Rick Foucheux was emotionally exhaustive, as seen on Foucheux's face, in his weighted walk and droopy belly. The audience, however, was constantly engaged thanks to Miller's timeless story about love and the American Dream. Loman is a salesman who just wants to be well-liked, but as he grows old and his sons grow up, he finds himself grasping for dreams that move further and further away.

Foucheux played the exhaustion and the slide to reality; in the end the audience was in tears.

Arena Stage chose to recreate two inarguably character-based shows for good reason. The company is currently undergoing a renovation of its regular space, making way for a new $125 million theater complex that will sport a 500-seat theater and a space nicknamed the Cradle - a small 100-seat theater dedicated to the development of new work.

In the meantime, shows take place in Crystal City in Arlington, Va. While this is a temporary space, it also underwent A $750,000 renovation. The theater seats a large crowd and maintains a luxurious amount of legroom.

In fact, one can only feel the temporary nature of the space peripherally, thanks to the Arena Stage's creative use of the stage. Since "A View From the Bridge" played the night after, the set on Thursday night was small and impermanent, filling half the stage with a bed and kitchen table and leaving the other half of the stage to become whatever other location the play called for.

But Arena Stage embraced the small stage by choosing character-based shows. Not only was Foucheux a previous Helen Hayes Award winner, but so were four of his fellow cast members, including Nancy Robinette who portrayed Linda, Willy's wife, with a strikingly Maggie Smith-style intensity.

Tim Getman, who recently worked on Woolly Mammoth Theater's world premiere of "the Unmentionables," and Jeremy S. Holm played Willy's sons - Happy and Biff - respectively. Holm's portrayal was many things, and it fit so much better than John Malkovich's performance from the 1985 film version of the play.

Arena Stage made great, classic decisions in the production, and the audience was with them the whole time. In the end, the audience gave Foucheux and the rest of the cast a standing ovation. But the true test of the cast's talent will be the night after when they tackle "A View From the Bridge."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

Be the first to comment on this story

• Name: (required)
• Email: (required)
• NOTE: Email address will not be published
• Website:

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Email notify will not work because you are not currently logged in.
Click here to quickly login or create a free account.

Type your comment below (html not allowed)

  I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.