By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Burlington Local-News.ca
"Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!"
"I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!"
On October 17, 2025, we will celebrate the birthday of one of Western theatre's most renowned, discussed, and produced playwrights: the Pulitzer Prize-winning Arthur Miller (1915-2005). He turns 109 this year. On October 31, 2025, which is coming up just as quickly, Dundas Little Theatre is set to premiere their own stylized version of what is widely considered to be Miller's finest work: his Death of a Salesman, which was first performed at the Morosco Theatre in New York City in 1949.
A staple for Language Arts school curriculums and a highly ambitious undertaking for any theatre, Death of a Salesman is Miller's tragic destruction of the concept of the American Dream, translated into a fast-paced stage play in two acts. The idea of the American Dream is a straightforward one: work hard and never quit, excel in the world of business, raise your children right, and you can break free from generational poverty.
But what happens when an aging, mentally deteriorating, Brooklyn-based everyman like Willy Loman works himself too hard, doesn't excel at business or even basic finance, has two grown sons who are struggling to thrive as adults, and is set to leave his long-suffering wife Linda destitute when he passes? He can't make a sale. Everything in his house is falling apart. He's getting too old to keep going, and he can no longer cope. Has he failed to achieve the American Dream, or has society somehow failed him?
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Taking on Willy Loman's unravelling and predetermined fate at Dundas Little Theatre this year is director Matthew Wilson. Wilson has a progressive vision for his production of Death of a Salesman and looks to make what he calls a "creative subversion" from the original material. Wilson plans to shift focus away from the post-WWII societal expectations to succeed at any cost. Instead, he intends to direct more observation towards the pressing issue of men's psychological welfare. In particular, Willy Loman's psychiatric plight, which, in the context of the play, is reaching a crisis point, as he can no longer manage the responsibilities of a household provider or even align his memories.
"This play works in any time and place, especially in North America. But my production isn't focused on the American Dream," says Wilson, when asked about how this story about a failing salesman from a completely different place and era will resonate with modern-day audiences in Ontario. "I'm placing more attention on men's mental health and the pressures that shape it. In that way, I think it speaks to audiences now more than ever."
Arthur Miller kept Willy Loman's spiralling mental condition ambiguous in the play. Willy never sees a doctor or gets officially diagnosed, but it has been speculated by both theatre and medical scholars that this fictional protagonist suffers from rapidly creeping dementia, an extreme personality disorder, clinical depression, burnout, or a mix of any of these afflictions. Bruce Edwards, the local actor set to star as Willy Loman, has his own perspective on Willy's state of mind.
"I don't see Willy as having dementia," said Edwards, when asked about getting into a character with such debilitating mental health problems. "He is certainly having mental issues, more akin to a psychotic breakdown, as his intransigent belief in what he imagines as the requisite fulfillment of his dreams crashes against the reality of his and his sons' limitations in an unsympathetic world."
"The tension between Willy's adamant belief and his almost subliminal acknowledgement of the fallacies inherent in a corrupt fantasy, that he himself fails to live up to, provide the energy," Edwards continued. "I'm looking to get immersed in the man."
Willy Loman's relationship with his two sons, Biff and Happy, is deeply broken and dysfunctional. Years of applying high levels of pressure on them both, as well as the strain of keeping up a perfect and wholesome family façade, have ultimately produced what he considers to be two chronic underachievers. Willy Loman's eldest son, Biff, is a troubled and unemployed man in his thirties who abandoned a promising athletic career in his youth after experiencing a traumatic event. Since then, he's become, in turn, a farm hand, a petty thief, and a cynic.
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Biff is notable in the play for being the only one willing to directly confront his father about the family's flaws and do any sort of self-reflection. According to his actor, Jeff Giles, Biff will go through his own mental journey as well as a sort of spiritual awakening in the play. Giles is applying his own personal form of spirituality and methods to construct his character's psyche.
"Certain forms of Buddhism have noticed that there's some consistency in how people experience their relationship to their body, mind, and sense of self. They shift and change as they progress in a meditation practice. It's often called the 'stages of insight,' and I've been trying to sort of move Biff through those stages in an imaginary way," said Giles on the subject of getting into character as Biff, who has been named by many theatre scholars -- and by Giles himself -- as the true hero of Death of a Salesman.
"And really, Biff does go through a truly existential crisis and a great realization as the play progresses, so I think using these mythical and spiritual 'maps' are both interesting and valuable as conceptual tools."
"We mourn those who fail to 'pass the test,' or those who fall victim to malevolent forces. We rail against those who would rather tear something down than build something up. We've done this for hundreds of years, come up with countless iterations of the same stories," Giles said, when asked whether or not new audiences will find Biff's story relatable. "Some versions of those stories get forgotten, but sometimes, through some combination of craft and grace, a writer really hits the bullseye, and those become the classics. And Salesman is undoubtedly one of those things."
Dundas Little Theatre's Death of a Salesman is set to have its first showing on October 31, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. The theatre is located at 37 Market Street South in Dundas, Ontario, with parking available behind the theatre and the J.L. Grightmire Arena. Tickets can be purchased online here and also at the door on the night of a performance. This is an opportunity to support a local theatre and hear what it has to say about a significant and universal topic.
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