The Price: Friday Evening

In Arthur Miller’s 1968 masterpiece The Price – his last great play – two estranged brothers, one a police officer, the other a prominent surgeon, reunite to dispose of the furniture of their late father, a businessman who lost everything in the 1929 stock market crash. As the policeman’s wife and a wily old furniture dealer attempt to mediate, the brothers have it out. One sacrificed his career plans to look after the father, the other walked out with a fierce determination to make a success of himself. Both have paid a price. Can they reconcile?

In this live radio play production, directed by Fredric Dannen, the role of the furniture dealer – a jocular character who seems more Neil Simon than Arthur Miller – has been adapted for Lola Smith, the doyenne of the San Miguel theater community, still going strong at 98. An 89-year-old Russian immigrant named Gregory Solomon in Miller’s original play, the dealer is now 98-year-old Vera Solomon. The superb cast is rounded out by Steve Garfinkel, as the policeman Victor Franz; Antonia Banewicz as Esther Franz, his wife; and Cristopher Berns as the surgeon Walter Franz.

When The Price debuted on Broadway, the New York Times proclaimed it “one of the most engrossing and entertaining plays that Arthur Miller has ever written.”

As with all theatrical presentations of La Troupe México, this production is bilingual. The Price will be performed in English with projected supertitles in Spanish.