The Price |
|
Review by Willard Manus To mark the
centennial of Arthur Miller, Center Theatre Group has mounted a production
of one of the illustrious playwrights later works, THE PRICE. Directed
by Irelands Garry Haynes (artistic director of Druid Theatre Company),
the play stars Kate Burton, John Bedford Lloyd, Sam Robards and Alan Mandell.
The latter gleefully takes on the role of the colorful, crafty furniture
dealer, Gregory Solomon, giving him the accent and behavior of an old-time
Yiddish vaudevillian. The result is a performance that is both stereotypical
and hilariousan uneasy mixture in this politically correct day and
age. Set in a
NYC once-grand brownstone whose dusty main room is piled high with antique
furniture, THE PRICE unfolds in 1960, soon after the death of the Franz
familys patriarch, a wealthy and proud businessman whose fortune
was wiped out in the 1929 Wall Street crash. All thats left of the
estate is the long-shuttered house and left-over furniture, which the
heirs want to sell to the aged, tottering Solomon, whose non-stop jokes
and shticks mask the darkness at his core (the suicide of a beloved daughter). (Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave. 213-628-2772 or centertheatregroup.com |