Theatre
The 10 Selected Productions

Tod eines Handlungsreisenden [Death of a Salesman]

By Arthur Miller
German translation by Katrin Janecke

Schauspielhaus Zürich

Tod eines Handlungsreisenden [Death of a Salesman]

Tod eines Handlungsreisenden. Robert Hunger-Bühler

© Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie

Past Dates

Willy Loman roars on stage in a Thunderbird. The sports car makes him happy, whether or not he’s in debt. In his stage classic Arthur Miller weighs up the costs of the American dream – and not just the monetary ones. And this dream will cost Willy Loman his life. In contrast with many productions from recent years Stefan Pucher makes no obvious reference to the present day: Stéphane Laimé’s fantastic stage design opens up dream homes of the 1950s in cinemascope. Cameras transfer the action onto screens, close-ups bring it nearer to the audience but at the same time also make it more distant. A magnificent company from Zurich play this story of a loser from the 1950s with an historical awareness – and show that the failures in the ‘American way of life’ have a great deal to do with us. Because the promise of this lifestyle – that everyone can achieve it, indeed that everyone must achieve it – still exists today as a threat.

Ellinor Landmann

Besetzung

Directed by Stefan Pucher
Stage Design Stéphane Laimé
Costume Design Marysol del Castillo
Music Christopher Uhe
Video Sebastian Pircher (impulskontrolle)
Lighting Design Markus Keusch
Dramaturgy Katja Hagedorn

Robert Hunger-Bühler Willy Loman
Friederike Wagner Linda
Sean McDonagh Biff
Jan Bluthardt Happy
Jonas Gygax Bernard
Michaela Steiger The Woman
Siggi Schwientek Charley
Markus Scheumann Ben
Julia Kreusch Miss Howard
and Larissa Eichin, Jasmin Friedrich, Olivier Tobler