The Price review

Barn Well "Price"d
The Price, Arthur Miller’s tale of family tragedy rooted in the great Depression, first appeared on Broadway in 1968, twenty years after his first hit, All My Sons. Now in production at The Barn Theatre in Ross, it follows one of Miller’s ongoing themes, the struggle between responsibility and success. Director Michael-Paul Thomsett summarizes, “This play is about the price we pay for the choices we make in life.”

Here the two estranged Franz brothers, Victor, a policeman, and Walter, a doctor, must come together for the first time in sixteen years to arrange the sale of their late father’s estate. The building is scheduled for demolition; everything has to go. In the family’s deliberations about its disposal, clues appear to their own beginnings and to their parents’ vanished, elegant life: fencing gear, a top hat, evening gowns, a harp.

Victor’s wife, Esther, hopes “There could be some real money here.” Esther looks sharp in her new suit, but resists looking for a job to fill up her now-empty nest. Victor is almost fifty, worried about age and money, and can’t bring himself to fill out the papers that will let him retire from the force. Then Gregory Solomon, the estate dealer, shows up, but just as he and Victor have made an agreement, brother Walter appears. “Go ahead with the deal,” says Walter, casually raising just enough questions to let the audience know that this deal is anything but finished; lights go down on Act One.

Act Two belongs to the Franz family, and the audience misses Mr. Solomon. Unlike the brothers, Gregory Solomon, the vigorous furniture dealer, loves his work. Victor had got Solomon’s number out of the phone book – an old phonebook, as it turns out. The dealer is now almost ninety, but he wants to get back in the game one more time. And after giving Victor a quick education about what will sell quickly and what would be, at his age, “a big bet,” they agree on a price for the lot.

But while Solomon rests in the adjoining bedroom, Walter explains that he can make more on the estate by donating it and taking it as a tax deduction, then splitting the savings two ways. Further attempting to make up to Victor for the education his brother sacrificed while caring for their father, Walter will even arrange a new job for him, one in the science field that he used to love. But as Victor resists, the doctor gives his own account of what happened during the harsh, post-Depression years. The truth – if it is the truth – is even harder than the reality Victor has been living with for thirty years.

Ross Valley Players’ version of The Price is firmly directed and well acted. Dale Camden delivers a tightly-wound Victor. Dusty Poole portrays the high-achieving Walter, professionally successful, but personally frayed. Susan Suomi, a late substitute in the part of Esther, had her act and lines together to give a fine performance on opening night. And Norman A. Hall presented a finely nuanced rendering of Gregory Solomon. Hall resisted making a comic figure out of Solomon, letting Miller’s script reveal this sturdy old survivor.

The Price is a fine example of a Miller classic and another good summer play for high schoolers. It will be at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross through June 18. Prices range from $15 to $19. For complete information, see www.rossvalleyplayers.org or call the box office, 456-9555.