The Price by Arthur Miller: An Attic Full of Family Drama at Marylebone Theatre *****

I’d never heard of The Price by Arthur Miller even though I’m a huge fan of his plays. The 2019 production I saw of Death of a Salesman blew me away. It featured an all-Black cast (Wendell Pierce as Willy Loman) and this added an extra layer of resonance for his tale of a family groaning under the weight of the American Dream. The Price takes on recurrent Miller themes such as the social and economic pressures that can break people apart, even and especially people who are bound by blood.

It is almost as if the ghost of Willy Loman hovers over this production or rather the empty chair that sits centre stage. The play revolves around Victor Franz whose father once sat in that chair — a sunken place where he had pretty much given up on life after the financial crash of 1929.

After the death of his mother, a talented harpist, Victor moved in to take care of his dad who never recovered from the Great Depression. Meanwhile his brother Walter left home to pursue a sterling career as a surgeon. Unable to keep up with his studies and his caring responsibilities, Victor had to ditch college early and wound up in the police force.

We meet Victor as he enters the New York loft apartment crammed with his parents’ furniture, on a mission to sell it all. His wife Esther urges him to get a good price for the lot but clearly the antique dealer Gregory Solomon has other ideas.

Gregory’s arrival on the scene is like switching on another light in the attic. Despite his ripe old age, he brings a sense of youthful levity with jokes and stories that have even the dour Victor warming to him. Gregory is a seductive force of nature and will soon haggle down the price to something that will not satisfy Esther at all.

The Price is truly a play of two halves. Act 1 bubbles with jest as Gregory takes the lead and we delight in his joshing with Victor and his anecdotes about life, marriage and mortality. However, there’s an uneasy undercurrent that builds towards Victor’s estranged brother, Walter, showing up unexpectedly. 

We learn that Walter, despite his career success, has faced personal challenges too and that he’s going through something of a life makeover. His attempts to make peace with the brother he left behind merely rub at old wounds until the pain and grief spill out.

Now we enter more familiar Miller territory of bitterness and recrimination, self-martyrdom and self-loathing, disillusionment and denial. In the midst of it all are Esther, trying to hold the brothers together, and Gregory Solomon, almost a surrogate father here, helping them to find some measure of acceptance.

It’s a stunning production that gleams not just with Miller’s exceptional writing but stellar performances all round. Henry Goodman takes top billing as Gregory Solomon and it’s a virtuoso turn from the double Olivier Award winner. Along with his verbal sharpness and comic timing, he captures the old man’s vulnerability without ever slipping into pathos. 

Elliot Cowan is powerful in the lead role of Victor, the brother with a chip the size of Atlas’ globe on his shoulder. He’s an officer who never quite fit the uniform and whose flashes of rage are just waiting to burst through his shirt. Faye Castelow is seamless as the dutiful wife who visibly loves her husband but is almost done with trying to support him. John Hopkins plays Walter with impressive flourish and magnetism yet we sense that he might crack at any minute.

This play gives you plenty to think about: from the impossible choices we make and the consequences that bind us, to the impact of gender and social status on those choices, to the stories we inherit and the secrets we keep from those closest to us. It asks the question: what do we sacrifice when we choose one path over another and, ultimately, who pays the price? 

I loved the way Jonathan Munby directs the characters so they are constantly in conversation with the set. The set design (Jon Bausor) is visually rich, with so much attention to detail in the props, lighting and carefully arranged clutter. Every item tells its own story while adding to the whole. 

If you’ve ever lost a parent and been faced with letting go of their things, including some of the ‘stuff’ you’ve held inside, then this play will really hit home. The Price is a classy, funny, emotionally charged adaptation of another Arthur Miller masterpiece and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The Price by Arthur Miller is on a strictly limited run until Jun 7. Performances at Tue-Sat at 7.30pm & Sat-Sun at 2.30pm. Captioned performance May 19. Recommended for ages 12+ (content warning: suicide reference). Showing at Marylebone Theatre, Rudolph Steiner House, 35 Park Road, London NW1 6XT (Baker St tube)