Synopsis This sometimes funny, sometimes movingly poignant drama portrays a tortured time in American history. Set in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash, with America in political and social turmoil and families descending into poverty, Miller's play celebrates the indomitable spirit of the people who survived and prevailed in the face of unaccustomed adversity. The American Clock premiered on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre in 1980. Its only professional UK production to date was at the National Theatre in 1986 where it was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. Part of the ReDiscoveries2012 Season
Arthur Miller’s 1980 drama is partially based on a documentary history by Studs Terkel recounting individuals’ experiences of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Miller creates a cavalcade of a play which attempts to show how the American Dream turned sour "even for white folks".
"A whole generation is withering", states one character, somewhat portentously, and this is both the strength and the main weakness of the play. In portraying such a wide cross-section of society (there are 35 named characters, played by a cast of 12) many of these characters appear merely as sterotypes, there simply to fill out the larger picture and conform to Miller’s political posturing.
One cannot help but wonder what kind of play he could have fashioned if he had not kept wandering off down Studs Terkel Lane and had instead concentrated more fully on his central Baum family, who lose everything in the Wall Street Crash and are forced to re-evaluate all the things they thought they stood for.
[W@S_IMG]#http://whatsonstage.com/images/AmericanClock360.jpg#360#240#Michael J Hayes & Issy van Randwyck in The American Clock (photo: Francis Loney)[/W@S_IMG]For indeed there are echoes here of Miller’s great plays, especially Death of a Salesman, but time and again we are treated to yet another victim of social upheaval with a sad story to tell - a farmer, a prostitute, a dentist forced to sell flowers on the subway - and creaking references to historical figures ("Hitler? He won’t last six months."). In aiming for historical accuracy, Miller has diluted the drama and squandered his remarkable gift for dissecting family relationships.
There is a bold design decision from Philip Lindley in setting the whole play within a private view of an exhibition of photography entitled 'The Crash and After'. It points up the contemporary resonances, but it creates an odd atmosphere for the family-based scenes in a run-down tenement in Brooklyn. The sleek black art gallery seating hardly suggests a family struggling to avoid the mortgage man.
There are strong performances from Issy van Randwyck as Rose Baum and Patrick Poletti as the Alfieri-style narrator (cf. A View from the Bridge), and beautifully lucid direction from Phil Wilmott but, fascinating as it is for Miller aficionados, The American Clock ultimately fails to engage as fully as it might.
I was recalling my first trip to NYC in my recent travel blog and in particular that one of the plays I saw in that 1980 visit was a preview of Arthur Miller’s The American Clock (which closed soon after opening, but got an NT production some years later). The co-incidence was that I’d booked to see it at the Finborough two days after my return – and very glad I was that I had. Director Phil Wilmott’s idea of framing the play with scenes at a present day exhibition of great depression photos was inspired and heightened even further the parallels between 1929 and today. Given the number of scenes, the production has to be simple and it was, and the acting was the usual high standard we’ve got used to at the Finborough - but what grabs you is the uncanniness of the contemporary relevance of Miller writing 30 years ago about something that happened 80 years ago. Spooky! - Gareth James
02 May 12
Indifferent acting, too rigid staging around a rather bland photography gallery left this tricky Arthur Miller play in limbo. Sure it had some moments when it appeared to be going somewere. the greedy, baddie, capitalist bankers were the main fault and so topically so, but the it was not the sum of its parts and, you know, I suspect Mr Miller knew that too. It was a clunky production and suffered too much from some weak performances - a touch AmDram at times and yet there were moments when it really came together. The Finborough were brave taking this play on, but I think, in this case, it needed the National to pull it off. 4/5 for effort, but 2/5 for the result! - rds
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