Abstract
These Notes describe impressions made on the actor playing Ben by a community production of Death of a Salesman at the northern frontier of Willy's New England territory in January 2015. The action played out in an intimate, three-level acting space in an 85 seat, octagonal theater converted from a stock judging pavilion on the University of Maine campus. For Ben, who heard the production repeatedly but did not view it, this Salesman became a vivid radio play, a rich array of voices and rhythms, at once colloquial and mannered, lyrical and dissonant, affectionate and cruel. This production captured particularly well the play's fluid time. Scene changes, sound, and lighting revealed how past and present collided and merged; but Willy and Linda's familiarities with one another's quirks, desires, and rants evoked years of family life in between. Playing Ben proved to be a lark in act 1, full of swagger; but playing Ben in act 2 proved difficult, having to be sold on Willy's suicide but realizing by the end fraternal love for his kid brother. To Ben's ear, this production's poignant, energetic domesticity gave it a persuasive reality rising out of dream.
