Review

THE PRICE   Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the S.F. Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle

 

Had Detroit sustained the tradition of quality control scrupulously maintained by the Ross Valley Players, its market share would never have been whittled down to a paltry fifty-three percent of U.S. auto sales. Its current offering, THE PRICE by Arthur Miller, has all the digitalized technical precision of a pricey import yet it has the analogue feel of an classic American Dream Machine.

 

Watching the highly dysfunctional Victor Franz (superbly played by Dale Camden) and his enabling wife Esther Franz (remarkably played by an eleventh-hour under-study: Susan Suomi) one cannot help shedding a little honest light onto one’s own life.

 

Miller wrote the play as a metaphor for the national psychology that pervaded the nineteen-sixties: a mindset that embroiled and mired us in Vietnam. Yet, the play seems to function equally well on the individual level and in the twenty-first century.

 

The play is a bit of family psychotherapy. Victor Franz, a New York City Police Officer, lives a bitter, resentful life crippled by the whining, kvetching sisters: Shoulda, Coulda and Woulda. The blame game, deliberate distortions of the past, perpetuating family myths, and a misplaced, twisted sense of self-sacrifice are the delusional tempera that Victor uses paint himself into a cynical corner of self-deceit and self-defeat.

 

Like the 50,000 lives McNamara and Westmoreland invested in Vietnam, Victor too has a costly investment to protect: rather than live a successful life, Victor dramatically scales back his expectations, just as Nixon did when his goal of winning the war was scaled down to the ambiguously hollow “peace with honor.” No real objectives survived, just a murky, vague assumption that honor is somehow miraculously commensurate with the profundity of human sacrifice.

 

Victor’s stubborn determination to believe he made honorable choices in early life, lead him to a lifetime of under-achievement, penury and mediocrity. He is badgered and hounded by the truth. But, rather than confront his past and the ill-informed choices of his seminal years, Victor protects the lies he has imprudently invested in. To defend the absurdity of his life, Victor mans the ramparts: deflecting all assaults of truth launched by his successful, self-actualizing brother Walter. Like a hog in mud, Victor rolls and languishes in the arbitrary lies he has chosen to live by. As a fool returns to his folly, so too does Victor cling to the false pretenses that have distorted his life.

 

So is there any levity? Hey this is Arthur Miller, but enter Mister Gregory Solomon, a Jewish Zorba the Greek figure that is an expert on going on living long after the thrill of living should have been gone. As Mister Solomon, Norman A. Hall is the fresh air, the leavening in the play: He plays an endearing jester who puts new options on the table and then sits back to see if anyone takes the bait.

 

For quality theater, cultural enrichment and family psychotherapy to boot, this play is just the ticket. And, it is cheaper than a real psychotherapist. To reserve tickets call the box office at 415 925-9200.