The play "Death of a Salesman-, written by Arthur Miller in 1949 deals with the pressure of becoming a well - liked, wealthy and successful personality by trying to follow the ideas of the "American Dream-. The protagonist of the story is the 60ish Willy Loman being at the rough end of an undistinguished career as a salesman, and the pressures of his life are causing him to lose contact with reality. Living partly in the present (1949) and partly in the past (1928), Willy clings to fantasies of success for both himself and his sons, womanizing underachiever Happy and prodigal runaway Biff and simultaneously veils the family's hopeless financial situation. Since 36 years the small, almost fragile seeming and exhausted traveling salesman Willy Loman has been selling the products of the firm that he works for until his superior decides to fire him. With self - sacrificing devotion his dutiful wife Linda tries to keep up the fazade of the successful father and businessman, hoping for better times. Just as his mania has become so distracting that he no longer feels secure driving a car, Biff confronts his father with the lies he has laid out for the family in the course of his life; though his loyal wife tries to keep the peace it reveals that Willy's dreams, at least, fail to become the dreams of his sons, too.
Thus regarding to the way this play was presented Arthur Miller's play is, for good reason, a classic, but its subject matter and way of connecting present miseries with past traumas can make it a tormenting one to watch.
However the minimalist set, consisting of only a few props like the table, the refrigerator and tow chairs were used in a very creative way, for instance by using the table as a car, a bed and a graveyard at the end of a scene. Therefore there was no need to work with many requisites to create different situations. Furthermore it was very interesting and exciting to see how the cast would have solved the problem of the several present to past shifts.