The Price

Theatre West
( 02/13/2010 - 03/21/2010 )

In the attic of a Manhattan brownstone, filled with sheet-draped furniture, piles of books, rolled up carpets, and an old Victrola, the lives of four people converge one late afternoon in November, 1967, and none of them is unchanged by the encounter. The meeting of two brothers– one a successful surgeon, the other a police sergeant– takes place after many years of estrangement and is necessitated by the task of disposing of their parents' property. Throw into the mix the Wife of the police sergeant and an idiosyncratic antique dealer. "The Price" is ostensibly about the amount of money the antique dealer is willing to pay for the roomful of items. Yet it is viscerally about the cost of doing business as a brother, a son, a spouse, & as a human being. No one can be untouched by the messages that are driven home by this 1968 Arthur Miller play as its themes and values are timeless. Each character has paid a price to get where they are in life and their stories unfold in this taut drama.