![\"Dana](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044993_404_.jpeg\")
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Dana Dewes and Scott G. Jackson in \u201cThe Price\u201d at Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice.<\/p>\n
(Ian Cardamone)<\/p>\n
\u201cA View From the Bridge,\u201d a play whose revenge plot hinges on a tip to immigration authorities, could hardly be more timely. The same could just as unnervingly be said about \u201cThe Crucible,\u201d Miller\u2019s parable about the McCarthy witch hunts. The play, always front of mind when power is being abused, has given rise to a modern feminist riposte, Kimberly Belflower\u2019s thrilling \u201cJohn Proctor Is the Villain,\u201d<\/a> which is coming to the Mark Taper Forum next year.<\/p>\n Not to be missed right now is a small, exquisitely acted production of \u201cThe Price\u201d at Pacific Resident Theatre. Miller\u2019s 1968 play, written during the agonizing days of the Vietnam War, concerns the disposition of the remains of a once-illustrious estate. As two estranged brothers working with an 89-year-old appraiser try to put a price on the antiques and personal effects their father \u2014 a casualty of the Great Depression \u2014 left behind, the family history they both tried to bury explodes. <\/p>\n Miller\u2019s plays compel theatergoers to connect the dots not only between the past and the present but also between the political and the personal. His dramas set domestic conflicts against the backdrop of societal systems that insidiously warp the playing field for their characters.<\/p>\n Miller is often contrasted with Tennessee Williams. And while it\u2019s true that Miller<\/a> is more of a social realist and Williams<\/a> is more of a dramatic poet, Miller\u2019s carefully carpentered plays are emotionally supple and Williams\u2019 lyrical dramas are acutely mindful of the power dynamics of our collective life.<\/p>\n The realism of \u201cThe Price\u201d is as heavy as the old wooden furniture that the Franz brothers, Victor (Scott G. Jackson) and Walter (Jason Huber), are trying to profitably offload.<\/p>\n (Ian Cardamone)<\/p>\n Director Elia Kazan was drawn to both playwrights because he understood that they were as interested in the stories of individual Americans as they were in the larger tale of America itself. Kazan found in both writers more than enough poetry and grit to satisfy the new breed of realistic actor he was showcasing on stage and screen. <\/p>\n \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Price\u201d<\/a> are vastly different plays. The former, which Miller once considered calling \u201cThe Inside of His Head,\u201d is fluidly constructed, playing fast and loose with time as it tracks the disintegrating mental life of down-and-out salesman Willy Loman. \u201cThe Price,\u201d<\/a> by contrast, is set inside what looks at first glance to be a crowded antique shop but turns out to be the apartment once inhabited by the Franz family after the market crash changed everything. <\/p>\n The realism of \u201cThe Price\u201d is as heavy as the old wooden furniture (stacked and sorted on Rich Rose\u2019s eye-catching set) that the Franz brothers, Victor (Scott G. Jackson) and Walter (Jason Huber), are trying to profitably offload on a shrewd antique dealer named Gregory Solomon (Richard Fancy). \u201cSalesman\u201d is more limber in its dramaturgy, shifting locations and blurring chronologies. But it too depends on the ability of actors to embody the biographical weight of its finely detailed characters.<\/p>\n Arthur Miller\u2019s 1968 play \u201cThe Price,\u201d written during the Vietnam War, concerns the disposition of the remains of a once-illustrious estate. <\/p>\n (Ian Cardamone)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Price,\u201d directed by Elina de Santos, thrives in the intimacy of Pacific Resident Theatre\u2019s main stage. There\u2019s not a moment in the play that isn\u2019t deeply inhabited by a cast that understands the value of listening. <\/p>\n The drama builds toward a confrontation between Victor, a cop who dropped out of college to support his dad, and Walter, a wealthy doctor who made no such sacrifices and resents the guilt that he\u2019s spent a lifetime trying to elude. Miller gives both characters some claim on the truth, making the twisting argument that breaks out between the brothers enthralling to follow. <\/p>\n But just as insightfully handled are the complicated emotional dynamics between Victor and his wife, Esther (Dana Dewes), who is frustrated by her husband\u2019s resignation and blunted ambition but loyal to him and prepared to fight for his due. As for Solomon, the scene-stealing appraiser who dispenses old world wisdom while toting up an estimate for the furniture haul in between bites of a hard-boiled egg, is deliciously brought to life by Fancy, who has starred in both \u201cAll My Sons\u201d and \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d at PRT and enlivens this production with his veteran experience. <\/p>\n I saw \u201cThe Price\u201d on Sunday after having been dismally disappointed at the Saturday night opening of \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d at A Noise Within. That production, directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, seems completely deracinated on a set by Frederica Nascimento that registers no Brooklyn ZIP Code or locatable address anywhere. <\/p>\n Deborah Strang, Ian Littleworth, David Nevell and Geoff Elliott in \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d at A Noise Within. <\/p>\n (Craig Schwartz)<\/p>\n But the bigger problem is that the performances are ungrounded. Geoff Elliott, who shares the title of producing artistic director at A Noise Within with wife Rodriguez-Elliott, doesn\u2019t so much play Willy Loman as try on various accents, none of them remotely convincing to this native Brooklynite. Are the Lomans meant to be Irish immigrants or is that a Boston dialect that is being affected when the cartoonish New Yorkese takes a breather?<\/p>\n The house needn\u2019t be fleshed out to be made to seem real, but since it plays such an important role in the play, its presence onstage ought to at least be palpable to the characters. At one point near the play\u2019s tragic climax, Willy is feverishly planting seeds in the backyard, but Elliott gives no credibility to any of his character\u2019s actions. Willy might as well be delivering newspapers or mopping the kitchen floor, so disconnected are his gestures.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true he\u2019s not in his right mind, but it\u2019s just another instance of the casual disregard of the character\u2019s moment-to-moment reality. Willy\u2019s world never comes into being onstage, and the rest of the cast seems to wander in the limbo that\u2019s left behind. <\/p>\n \u201cDeath of a Salesman\u201d is more limber in its dramaturgy, shifting locations and blurring chronologies. <\/p>\n (Craig Schwartz)<\/p>\n As Linda Loman, Deborah Strang, normally so reliable, tries to follow the lead of husband Willy, but that turns out to be a dead end. Ian Littleworth\u2019s Happy, the dissolute son always looking for an easy way out, seems unsettled not only in his bearings but in his command of the script.<\/p>\n David Kepner\u2019s Biff, the prodigal son who rediscovers the reasons he ran off in the first place, delivers the most centered performance. It\u2019s at least possible to believe what his character is supposed to be feeling, but the placelessness of the production doesn\u2019t give him enough to dig into. The emotional combustion of his climactic scenes with Willy fail to reach cathartic levels. <\/p>\n Still, I found myself listening attentively to the warning Miller was issuing about buying into the salesman ethos. Willy\u2019s belief that good connections matter more than skill and that blarney and bluff can substitute for hard work explains a good deal about our current national disorder. <\/p>\n David Kepner, who delivers the most centered performance, and Ian Littleworth in \u201cDeath of a Salesman.\u201d <\/p>\n (Craig Schwartz)<\/p>\n But Miller\u2019s dramatic vision requires actors to relive the experiences of their characters, the way they do in De Santos\u2019 production. \u201cThe Price\u201d might not be an indisputable masterpiece like \u201cDeath of a Salesman,\u201d but its solid construction reveals tremendous complexity when the human story is scrupulously observed and the societal forces shaping our lives are suddenly thrust into view.<\/p>\n \u2018The Price\u2019<\/p>\n Where: Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice<\/p>\n When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. (Check for exceptions). Ends May 11<\/p>\n Tickets: $45<\/p>\n![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044993_364_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044994_550_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044994_806_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Geoff](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044994_12_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775044995_663_.jpeg\")
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