Publication details
Death of a Salesman at 75 in Czechia (and Czechoslovakia)
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller arrived in Czechoslovakia with a ten-year delay after its American premiere, but this was compensated for by staging it on the country’s “first stage”, the National Theater in Prague in 1959. The production ran for six years within a rotating repertory system and it was staged more than 120 times, which makes it an extremely successful run within the system. One of the best actors of his generation, Karel Höger, and one of the most respected stage directors of the times, Jaromír Pleskot, were a part of the production. The play has been staged in over thirty other productions since then, which makes it one of the most played titles in the history of Czechoslovak, and later Czech, theater. At this moment, the play is in the repertoire of two theaters in the country, one in Prague and the other in Zlín. This shows that Death of a Salesman is a phenomenon of its own kind on Czechoslovak and later Czech stages. My presentation will look into the staging tradition from three main vantage points: One, it will reflect the changing interpretation of the play’s main message because this certainly follows from transformations of the Communist regime in the country and its fall in 1989, which was followed by an era of uncritical Americanophilia in the 1990s and replaced by the criticism of the American society and values much in line with Miller’s own view but different from the pre-1989 Communist general anti-Americanism. Two, it will focus on coincidences between Miller’s visits to the country and his activities affecting it. Three, it will consider selected productions of Death of a Salesman featuring aging Czech male actors, for whom the role of Willy Loman marks a highlight in later stages of their careers. |
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