Neil Armfield on Death of a Salesman's relevance to a modern world for sale

Director Neil Armfield on Death of a Salesman's relevance to modern life It's fair to say a lot has changed since American playwright Arthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in 1948. The American dream still sells the promise of the world, yet with global populations having exploded by 240 per cent since, it's put at risk much of what made it beautiful in the first place. From nature covered by packaging and pollution, to unsustainable living trends and popular music commodified into formulaic trash, capitalism's finely tuned mechanisms seem impossible to stop. The promises keep coming — a bigger car, a flashier phone, trendier clothes, higher social status — sold to us by brash world leaders as people struggle to pay the bills and wealth distribution grows increasingly inequitable. Amid this backdrop, Miller's play about a tired, broke and increasingly deluded salesman seems as relevant as ever. "He's written this extraordinary play about the collapse of America, or predicting the collapse of America, which we're seeing acted out in real time today," Death of a Salesman Australia director Neil Armfield OA said. "It's a society that has deep roots in something great, but is able to be lost by these kind of confidence tricksters." Even some of the lines by lead character, salesman Willy Logan, sound familiar. "In a sense, the play comes in sideways at this enormous malaise and this whole notion of a society built on sales, where, as Willy says, 'It's not what you say; it's how you say it,' or, 'Start big and you'll end big,'" Armfield said. "There are all these kind of Trumpian tropes that are seen as sources of glory for this guy, who is dying as we watch him proceed through the play." But Miller's play is not about politics. It is centred on family and domestic issues. Told largely through arguments, memories and a final ditch to improve their lot, it presents the salesman's collapsing career, his shortcomings as a father and husband, and his failure to achieve the great American dream despite a lifetime in its pursuit. "The other centre of gravity in the play is Biff, Willy's eldest son who grew up loving him, and was all set to be the incarnation of his father's sense of the glory of America, but who sees, at a crucial moment, through the lies," Armfield said. "He's only 34 but has been trying to reconcile his own love of nature, of the truth and his own sense of self, with the kind of dreams that got pumped into him by his father and which he feels he can never live up to. "So there's this heartbreaking guy who is finding what it really means to be human, to be a moral person and a loving son, to a father who is lost inside the lie of the American dream." Miller's play premiered on Broadway in 1949 and ran for 742 performances, receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. It has been revived on Broadway six times. An Australian hit Armfield's Australian production of Death of a Salesman premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne during 2023. It was revived at Theatre Royal Sydney in 2024 and, after returning to Melbourne this year before a season in Brisbane, finishes with its Adelaide season starting later this month. Led by Adelaide-born actor Anthony LaPaglia as Willy, Alison Whyte as Linda Loman, Josh Helman as Biff, and Ben O'Toole — who came on board when it was revived for the Sydney season in 2024 — as Happy, it has retained the same leading cast. Armfield said the production had become "richer" with each season. "I think what [producer] Torben Brookman realised was that there was a real hunger in audiences for classic plays that were being kind of ignored by the state companies," he said. "That's not a criticism. Different companies are contributing to the culture in different ways. "But it meant that there was an audience hungry to see a great play and a beautiful production." Armfield is from Sydney's western suburbs, but has a long history working in Adelaide. Most recently this year he directed Cinderella at Her Majesty's Theatre, and in 2022 directed the oratorio, Watershed: The Death of Doctor Duncan, in the Dunstan Playhouse. Armfield, who says he has directed plays in all of South Australia's major theatres after coming to the city in the 80s with "the magnificent State Theatre Company", also directed A German Life in 2021 at the Playhouse. "Adelaide was where I learnt to work on a big stage," he said. He also co-directed seven Adelaide Festivals with Rachel Healy from 2017, wanting to give back to the city's performing arts scene and "the incredible potential that was released here in the 70s and 80s". Death of a Salesman runs from September 26 to October 4 at the Adelaide Festival Centre.