Tod eines Handlungsreisenden

Willy Loman has toiled as a traveling salesman for 40 years - for his wife Linda, but mostly for his sons Biff and Happy. He lives on the illusion of being a man of consequence. Willy has persuaded his son Biff to be a prodigy until he believed it himself. But then Biff fails an important exam and drops out of school. Fifteen years later, he is in his mid-30s and thinks he has wasted his life. Willy and Biff are united by economic failure and the hope that the next day will bring a turnaround. Instead, Willy is fired and Biff becomes a thief - and Happy can't find his place in life either. The family threatens to break up, worn down by life lies and decades of pent-up disappointment. Then Willy Loman comes up with a plan. For the last time, the traveling salesman gets into his car.

For all his tragedy, author Arthur Miller looks at the characters with tenderness. Volker Schlöndorff, who translated the play, writes: "Arthur Miller's father, a coat manufacturer, went bankrupt and never got back on his feet, because he looked for the blame only in himself and saw himself henceforth as a failure. This experience feeds the author's deep skepticism, which is why the comedy of Willy's contradictory claims appeals to him, for those who confuse dream and reality are not so much tragic as grotesque. He wins our sympathy by making us laugh when he falls for his own lies and illusions."