With three productions of Arthur Miller‘s plays being seen in London recently, his influence and interest in his work show no sign of waning. In Arthur Miller’s New York, Stephen Marino offers a tour of the city in the context of the playwright’s work.
In Miller’s dramatic work, New York City figures prominently, as characters navigate their lives against the backdrop of Brooklyn or Manhattan. Marino covers plays major and minor, and Miller’s work in prose fiction.
While considering what Miller got from these settings and what they meant in dramatic contexts, Marino includes images of then and now, and enough of the playwright’s biography to understand themes and inspiration.
Approaching the work of one of America’s greatest 20th-century playwrights from this geographical context offers a slightly different view on titles like Death of a Salesman or Broken Glass. Taking a memory or experience tied to a particular place and turning it into drama and art, Miller immortalised these places.
Heavily anecdotal and readable while pursuing a scholarly focus, Arthur Miller’s New York works as an exploration both of the work of Miller and the city in which they are set. It treats Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even Queens as cultural touchstones.
Social history, theatre study, and an exploration of middle-class America all feature in this careful tour through Miller’s work, themes, and settings. Twenty years in the making, Arthur Miller’s New York gives as much space to his novella Homely Girl as to his big-hitting dramas.
This is a paperback with black and white photographs that is very light and portable, but don’t let its ephemeral appearance fool you. If you are well-versed in Miller, this might reveal new information. If his work is new to you, approach this as a way to dip in with additional insights.
Arthur Miller’s New York by Stephen Marino is published by Methuen Drama and available now.