Mixed start, with our managing to find a slot only four ramps up in the car park, but I managed to hit one of them. I like to do better than one in four, just to prove I can still do it, despite my declining road hours.
Moved onto the Hogsmill fish, and just about managed to pick out a few of them in the gathering evening gloom. A bit of a panic when we thought they were facing downstream, which is not right for this particular location, but eventually decided that they were pointing upstream, as was proper.
Into row B, where by some great good luck, I had a seat behind a gap in the row in front, meaning that I had a good deal more foot room than I might otherwise have had. Fairly full house downstairs, but only a modest number of cushions out. Perhaps that is more a matinée thing. Failed to spot any luvvies or celebs, although there were a few candidates.
The play was new to me and, I thought, rather good. Rather good in the sense that it laid out serious issues for our consideration, serious issues which would have been very much in people's minds in the immediately post-war US, perhaps explaining why the play was a hit on Broadway. Serious issues which worked for me because they were, in large part, left unresolved. Miller did not claim to have the answer, he just laid out some visible facts and let us, to a large extent, sort it out as best we might ourselves.
Manufacturers of vital equipment for the war effort - in this case engine blocks for aeroplanes - cutting corners with fatal results, some months down the line. Were they profiteers who deserved to be jailed? Was it just a judgement call they got wrong? Were accidents of this sort inevitable given the pressures of time and place? Was it a conspiracy? I leave aside the real life story from which the play was drawn, in which these issues, left hanging in the play, were probably rather clearer.
How should the guilt have been apportioned between the two responsible managers? Did the right one take the hit? How would they deal with their own guilt?
How would his neighbourhood respond to one of them when released from jail early? Would they come round for friendly games of cards in the evening? What about his neighbourhood business going on to thrive after the war, providing lots of much needed employment?
How should his wife, the mother of a missing airman deal with her grief? Was astrology the answer? Did she know, that at some level, that he knew about what her husband, his father, had done, and committed suicide by combat? Was it better not to know, or at least not to articulate that knowledge?
And what about the guilt that the surviving (captain) son felt, being one of the few survivors from his (combat) company? Nothing to do with defective engine blocks.
When was it right for the fiancée of the missing airman to move onto his brother, said surviving son?
What about the smug chap next door who managed, perfectly decently but certainly not heroically, to stay ahead of the draft throughout the war?
For my money Horovitch did better as the husband, the manager who got off lightly, than Downie did as the wife. She had a good go, but did not quite get the febrile, strung out quality needed. This despite the fact that it was hard to get Inspector Slack out of mind, whereas she came, as far as I was concerned, with a clean sheet.
PS: it made a change to have a set which was perfectly adequate, but did not strike one as being more important than the play. We have seen what seems to be rather a lot of very fancy sets recently, seemingly the subject of far more TLC than the plays which hosted them.
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