Featured: Carman Lacivita, Alexis Camins, Jennifer Lim | Photo by Curtis Brown Photography - Long Wharf Theatre, Arthur Miller’s THE PRICE in partnership with Legacy Theatre
Featured: Mark Nelson, Carman Lacivita | Photo by Curtis Brown Photography - Long Wharf Theatre, Arthur Miller’s THE PRICE in partnership with Legacy Theatre
Long Wharf Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s The Price finds itself at home in Legacy Theatre’s intimate house. Directed by Ralph B. Peña, this production counts the cost of a life through the lens of time, serving as a retrospective on decisions and sacrifices made. It reminds us of the importance of living while there’s time. This play, set in a Manhattan brownstone during the late 1960s, explores themes of time, cost, and the equation that works out to a life well lived.
Victor (Alexis Camins) and his wife Esther (Jennifer Lim) make arrangements to settle Victor’s late father’s estate after over a decade of allowing their possessions to crystallize in a museum of their lives. Esther, a kept woman who freely expresses her reservations about the way things are, were, and should be, pushes her policeman husband to do more than consider retirement. The life she was promised took a backseat to the work he felt compelled to do, while Esther herself hemmed and hawed about the work she could do—not wanting to be caged in any one place.
Victor rings an elderly Mr. Gregory Solomon (Mark Nelson), whose wisdom is sometimes more than Victor can appreciate, to appraise the space full of his life in antiquity. Victor’s brother, Walter (Carman Lacivita), visits at long last, weighing in on the value of the life he and his brother once shared. Tensions rise as the brothers settle their grievances and their father’s estate with Solomon, a representative of time and a catalyst for wisdom, helping to settle the matter at hand.
Featured: Mark Nelson | Photo by Curtis Brown Photography - Long Wharf Theatre, Arthur Miller’s THE PRICE in partnership with Legacy Theatre
Lim’s ferocity powers Esther, who toggles between the dutiful wife and a woman with agency at a time when agency for women was still fairly new. Lacivita is both an unstoppable force and an immovable mountain. His characterization of Walter oscillates between the cool of a collected gentleman and the fury of a man possessed. Camins embodies the necessary level-headed stoicism of Victor—a man who is rational even in his anger.
Nelson is the cornerstone of this production, immaculately capturing the bumbling wisdom and biting wit of Mr. Solomon, a character aptly named for the prudence of his years and the insight of his folly, like that of the Old Testament’s King Solomon. Nelson’s impartation of knowledge through Gregory Solomon is palpable as a father’s lessons to his sons, reminiscent of the Proverbs, "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.”
The set design, by Riw Rakkulchon, plays against the emotional claustrophobia of the story—a staged room full of large and small exhibited articles, attempting to provide evidence of a life lived. A suffocating scene, full of things that may or may not be of value beyond the heirlooms they failed to become.
Ashley Soliman’s costume design pays homage not just to the style of the time, but acknowledges the identity in each garment—Esther’s desire to be perceived as elegant; Victor’s uniform betraying his wages; Walter’s ensemble being more put together than his mind; and Mr. Solomon’s vintage feel against the show of time on his head. Each stylistic choice affirms the core attributes of each character, creating a presentation that cannot be discounted.
Each element of this production comes together to honor the delicacy and resonance of Arthur Miller’s still-poignant work. The Price considers grief and the question of whether or not the hands of time can reach into the crevices of one’s heart to heal the stowed-away hurts that were never exposed.
The Price runs through November 22nd. For tickets, visit https://www.longwharf.org/
