Philip Jackson on family feuds and ITV3 fame
Philip Jackson is most widely known for his portrayal of Inspector Japp in Agatha Christie’s POIROT playing opposite David Suchet’s mastermind detective.
Other credits include hit British films Brassed Off, Little Voice and Mike Bassett.
His stage credits include The Lodger (Royal Exchange), King Lear (Royal Court) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC).
Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman is considered to be one of the most important dramatic works of the 20th century. Exploring themes of rivalry, jealousy and disappointment, it’s a well explored theme and one to which everyone can relate. Abundant adaptations both on the stage and the big screen have been produced, so what makes Director Sarah Esdaile’s any different? Phillip Jackson, who plays the tragic hero Willy Loman, explains…
So how are the rehearsals for Death of a Salesman going?
It’s going well, but it messes with your head! We’re cracking it. It’s not easy; very, very complicated. This is our fourth week. It’s a big, long play so you need a long time to figure it out. It’s poetic the way it’s written. I’ve never worked so hard in my life. I’m in nearly all the scenes so I don’t get any breaks; when I’m not rehearsing I’m learning lines! It’s intensive but satisfying. The cast are amazing and everyone seemed to have immaculate American accents as soon as we started! A fantastic cast and a really good director. Our director was saying earlier that she’d done some education stuff this week with schools and it was impossible to explain to kids how this play works without seeing it – on the page it’s actually very hard to imagine how it’s staged. The moment for example, when Willy’s talking to somebody in reality, but also somebody from the past is in the same room, as it were. On the page you don’t really know what that’s like, but when you start walking around and seeing how weird that is you realise this is someone who’s hallucinating.
How is the production being staged?
We’re sticking very closely to the script. We’re all convinced that Arthur Miller’s a genius so everything that we put in is relevant and useful. Miller writes amazing stage directions that really help you to find out what’s going on.
What do you think of Willy Loman, your character?
Well, he’s had it! He’s a complete loser! He’s gone!
I apologise here that my next question was to be whether Philip could relate to the character at all! He replies:
I can relate to him – very much so! It’s somebody who’s got to a point in his life when he’s looking back on it and coming to the conclusion that he’s failed in every area. That’s not just in the world of being a salesman; which went well when he was younger but has gone increasingly wrong so he’s very much in debt. But also in his relationship with his family, particularly his eldest son. That father/son relationship is the main thing about the play. It’s pretty epic, almost like a Greek tragedy. So really he’s saying that everything he’s ever done, he’s done wrong – looking back at it, even though at the time he might have thought that it was the right thing to do… So he thinks the only conclusion is to commit suicide. There’s a cheerful little play for you!
There is some controversy regarding the ending of the play; some critics think that Willy Loman doesn’t actually commit suicide as it’s not explicit that the funeral is his. What do you think?
I think in our production it’ll be pretty clear what’s happened – I don’t know whether I should give that away or not! It’s funny that – there are things like red herrings. One of them is that he has this gas pipe, and also that they think he’s been trying to crash his car before but maybe not that successfully because he’s done it on a bridge over some water that’s very shallow! So you could say that he’s actually failed at committing suicide as well! The idea is that in his death he’d be leaving his family the greatest gift which would be to inherit $20,000 because of the insurance – which was a lot of money then.
Willy Loman’s slogan, which he lives by, is “anything is possible as long as you are well liked.” Do you agree with that?
His philosophy is that it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. If you’re popular and can tell people lots of jokes and make them feel comfortable with you they will always look after you. “Be liked and you will never want” is another of his phrases. This is something that he teaches his sons; but of course it’s a load of rubbish. That doesn’t work because partly as you get older, the young people coming in are going to be more popular than you are. It’s sort of based on this American dream thing – popularity wins the day. It’s sad because I think Willy was normally a quite witty guy when he was younger. As you get older you run out of steam.
Willy Loman seeks validation from others to affirm his own self-esteem. Do you feel like this in your life?
We all like to be liked – you’re not going to go out of your way to be deliberately unpleasant or make yourself unpopular. There is a lot of this in the flashback parts of the play where the next door neighbour Bernard, who is a bit of a swot, is made fun of because he’s always studying. He turns out to be the most successful of all of them when he becomes a lawyer in the Supreme Court. That’s the moral of the play really; that working hard is not for losers.
Can you give me a brief synopsis of the story?
It’s basically about a family; a mother, father and two sons. It’s a family saga about where their relationships have gone wrong and how the father’s overwhelming domination of the two boys and his wife has ruined their lives. You see that by going back to episodes in the past which he’s imagining, so I think that anybody who has a family will relate in some way to something in the play. It’s very universal. Sometimes it’ll trigger things that you’ve forgotten, or not thought of as particularly significant when you were kid. I’m not saying people will be coming out of the theatre slashing their wrists; there are some jokes. I don’t want everyone to think it’s a complete tragedy without any light moments. They’ll just feel recognition and connect with it as it’s a play about real people and their lives. I can certainly relate to it a lot.
Death of a Salesman is described as one of the most important plays in the 20th century. Many people will have seen productions of it before. What makes this one different?
Although it’s a bit of a classic, we’d encourage the audience not to think about other productions. As far as we’re concerned, we’re doing it for the first time, as if it’s not been done before. We’re not really influenced; we’re starting from scratch. But obviously ours will be better than all the other ones!
So tell us about Philip Jackson; who are you and what have you done before?
Well most people go on about this Poirot thing, how I was Chief Inspector Japp, but I actually haven’t done that for nearly ten years. Because of ITV3, it’s shown a lot there all the time, so I can’t seem to get away from it! I mean literally all the time, virtually every day. I don’t watch it, but I think a lot of people do. But that’s not the only thing I’ve done; I did a lot of theatre, TV, a few films – Brassed Off, Little Voice, High Hopes. I don’t do a lot of theatre these days so this is quite a big number to do.
What are your plans after Death of a Salesman?
I’m doing another film in Iceland. I did a film there a few years ago called Little Trip to Heaven. Well I hope I’ll be doing it – if the volcano stops!
– Philip Jackson was speaking to Ruth Kilner
Death of a Salesman is playing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds from 30th April to 29th May. For ticket information go to www.wyp.org.uk
