The Price

Title: The Price by Arthur Miller
Director’s name: Adam Cook
Production company: State Theatre
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse
Date: May 4th 2010.

Arthur Miller’s The Price is a two hour, real-time snapshot of one couples’ afternoon who once dreamt the ‘American Dream’ before settling for lower-middle class suburbia in 1968 New York City. The play centres around the effects of the Great Crash of 1929 and the concept of financial hardships, which are reoccurring themes in Miller’s plays including most famous work, Death of a Salesman (1949). The play also centres around the concept of the overwhelming importance of personal and social responsibility; with the main character Victor as a pivotal example of someone who has always felt a great pressure care for those around him, and what effect this has had on his life.

Arthur Miller’s plays are works of realism,   The Price being an example of social realism. Growing up during the Great Depression many of Arthur Miller’s plays are influenced by the poverty, fragility and the vulnerability of life that surrounded him in his youth. Through his writing, Miller created a connection with his audience by evoking sympathy and empathy for his characters. His exploration of issues that were relevant to the original 1968 audience (the obsession with the American Dream, striving to achieve greatness) brought about a feeling where audiences saw their own lives reflected on the stage. The set gives a visual interpretation of the disintegration of dreams. The dilapidated attic crammed with elegant, old furniture pieces, which are now considered worthless, is representative of Victor and Walter’s former happy childhood and how it was overshadowed by the harsh realities of their adulthoods. Pieces of furniture are balanced precariously on top of one another as if they could fall at any moment, reflecting the vulnerability of life.

The Price centres around Victor Franz (Michael Habib), an aspiring science student turned policeman...