Brightest Young Things

In the late 1960’s Arthur Miller fathered and turned his back on a child with Down Syndrome. Shortly thereafter he wrote The Price, a family tragedy that assigns emotional price tags to the decisions men make—documenting, perhaps, the personal cost of Miller’s own decision to turn his back on a son he would erase from his memory.

That’s probably why Miller treats Walter Franz—a self-made man who abandoned his struggling family to pursue a successful career in medicine—with the same compassion he awards to Walter’s brother, Victor, who sacrificed his own goals to support a father left mentally deranged by the crash of 1929.

The action takes place in the past, but the heartrending drama erupts onstage within the complicated confines of the present. After 16 years of bitter silence, the two brothers have reunited in the attic of their Manhattan childhood home to sell their family’s possessions before the building is torn down. The worth of the material goods is essentially inconsequential; the Franz brothers are more concerned with questioning, arguing, and identifying the cost of the choices they’ve made.

“You wanted a real life. And that’s an expensive thing;” well-to-do Walter informs his self-righteous, blue-collared brother. Yet once the layers of their complicated relationship have been painfully peeled back, Miller shows that the moral high ground can be just as delusional and self-indulgent as the selfish path that Walter chose—which was ridden with its own personal costs.

The production stars a real-life family of actors with Andrew Prosky as Victor and brother John Prosky portraying Walter. 77-year old Prosky patriarch, Robert, steals the show as Gregory Solomon—a 90-year-old Jewish antiques appraiser who boisterously injects humor and wisdom into the family drama. Andrew and his co-star Leisa Mather who plays Esther--Victor’s loyal, but money-oriented wife--are not always convincing on their own; but sparks fly when Robert Prosky brilliantly plods on stage with gusto and charm. His stage presence elevates and helps carry the cast’s riveting performance.

“We invent ourselves to wipe out what we know,” reasons Solomon—an insight imparted in a play that Miller likely wrote as a fine theatrical record of the price he paid for his own self-creation. At the expense of Arthur Miller, his third wife, and forgotten son: bravo.

THE PRICE
Starring Andrew, John, and Robert Prosky along with Leisa Mather. Written by Arthur Miller, directed by Michael Carelton. Presented by Theater J, 529 16th Street; Washington, DC. Through April 18.

Previously in Live DC:

• 2/13: LiveDC: George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic @ 930 Club
• 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
• 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
• 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
• 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
• 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
• 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre