REVIEW: I’m Not Running, National Theatre ✭✭✭
Jennifer Christie reviews I’m Not Running by David Hare now playing at the Lyttelton at the National Theatre.
Jennifer Christie reviews I’m Not Running by David Hare now playing at the Lyttelton at the National Theatre.
The role of Willy Loman is very exacting, requiring great range and subtlety from the actor. The single greatest requirement, though, is for the actor to be Loman rather than to play him; there needs to be total immersion in the character, and the character’s different stages. It must be possible to see the Loman who so enthralled and impressed his sons, the Loman who believed in the Dream and to contrast that against the Loman who is engulfed, diminished, destroyed. Antony Sher gives a prickly, vigorous, erratically explosive performance. He might wear Loman’s skin but he never gets under it.