|
 "No Villain", which Miller wrote at 20 as a literature major
at the University of Michigan, and which won a $250 prize that
helped fund his studies, will be performed at the 60-seat Old
Red Lion Theatre from Tuesday into early January.
Sean Turner, a 29-year-old director, unearthed the play in an
Arthur Miller archive, "courted" the foundation that owns the
rights to allow him to put it on, and says that while it may not
be the equal of "Death of a Salesman" or "The Crucible" it is a
worthy part of the Miller canon.
"I can see why there is a temptation to say it was probably
'lost' for a reason, so let's leave it there," he told Reuters
at the theater in a pub in Islington.
"But I don't think it was ever lost for a reason, I think he
just didn't have the means with which to produce it. There
doesn't seem to be any evidence to suggest that he thought it
was substandard in any way," Turner said.
Turner went on a treasure hunt for the play after seeing a
reference to it in a biography of Miller, who was one of Marilyn
Monroe's three husbands.
He said the Arthur Miller Foundation, which had heard of the
play but not seen it, gave him permission to ask the University
of Michigan to search its archives.
"Six weeks later they came back with a microfilm copy of it - a
scanned version of his original transcript is there, complete
with handwritten penciled notes," Turner said.
[to top of second column] |
The play, like many of Miller's works, draws on the dynamics and
interactions of Miller's own family. His father, who had immigrated
from a village that is now part of Poland, owned a clothing
manufacturing business in New York City but the family lost almost
everything in the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
The plot centers on a student, recognizably based on Miller, returns
home from university, filled with Marxist ideas, to challenge his
father, who is struggling to keep the family business afloat in hard
economic times.
The play shows Miller's sharp ear for dialogue, spiced from time to
time with what Turner called "those brave, rich lines that other
people would shy away from".
One example from "No Villain" is a character who says: "My God, what
moves us like this, what pushes us like this? Where we don't want to
go? My good God, why do we deserve this, God in heaven?"
And why the title?
"There is 'no villain' - that's the point," Turner said, laughing.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
