Long Wharf Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joan Channick, presents The Price, by Arthur Miller, directed by Gordon Edelstein, from October 24 through Nov. 18 on the Mainstage.
Marco Barricelli (Uncle Vanya), David Margulies (Rocket To The Moon) and Jeff McCarthy (The Front Page) will return to the Long Wharf Theatre stage. Kate Forbes will be making her Long Wharf debut.
Arthur Miller, a Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 2004, is considered one of America's foremost playwrights for his thoughtful examinations of the individual in America in works like Death of A Salesman (1949), All My Sons (1947) and The Crucible (1953). Miller's characters grapple with nothing less than the desperate need to find purpose and dignity in a country obsessed with personal ambition.
Miller returns to these themes in this 1968 play, the last of his truly great works. He said in a 1999 essay for the New York Times, that the primary force driving the creation of the play was the "tangled memories of people," with response to the Vietnam War and avant-garde theatre flavoring the work.
"The Price grew out of a need to reconfirm the power of the past, the seedbed of current reality, and the way to possibly reaffirm cause and effect in an insane world," Miller wrote.
Estranged brothers Walter, a successful surgeon, and Victor, a poorly paid policeman who put his own dreams on hold because of family obligations, reunite after 16 years to divide their recently deceased father's estate.
With a comically philosophical antiques dealer hovering in the background, the brothers confront each other about their feelings, the tangled memories of their family life and their respective places in the world.
What emerges in this timeless play is, as described by the New York Times, "an earnest battle of wills about the ownership of one family's past."
The opening night will be Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. Curtain times are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 pm, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 3 pm and 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm and 7 pm.
The pricing is as follows: all previews are $42; weekday performances $57; weekend performances $62; senior/student/under 30; $22 (limited seating, restrictions apply.)
Audience members are invited to enrich their theatre-going experience by participating in any of Long Wharf Theatre's premiere events during the run of The Price.
Backstage With . . .
* Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 pm - Gordon Edelstein will interview a member of the artistic team.
* Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 pm - Long Wharf's technical staff will provide an inside look at technical tricks and the construction of The Price. -- www.longwharf.org
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