Word: alun
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Willy Loman, Miller's famously doomed salesman, is also brought down to size a bit on the British stage. In the National's Death of a Salesman, Willy is played by Alun Armstrong (a veteran of musicals like Les Miserables as well as the original cast of Nicholas Nickleby), whose tidy little mustache, hangdog expression and Brooklyn accent anchor him firmly in the dreary everyday. Armstrong's Willy is a small man, too downtrodden even to rail with much conviction. It's an elegant production, the dominant stage image a tree in full blossom, with a broken trunk...
...Thomas, each couple a tottering example of long-term marital pathology. Peter and Muriel have not touched each other in ten years; Charlie is a night-after-night drunk; Gwen is restive in the presence of her ineffectual husband. These people find their routines interrupted by the return of Alun and Rhiannon Weaver, friends from their youth who have decided to move back home. Alun has made a name for himself in England as a televised authority on the land of his birth ("I peddle Wales to the Saxons"). For her part, Rhiannon comes back to find two old flames...
...Weavers galvanize everyone around them. The already spectacular level of drinking escalates, as Alun and his mates gather each midday at the Bible and Crown, the local pub. From there, it is on to expeditions in search of other watering houses that have not been rendered horrible by modern redecoration. At one such ruined spot, Peter pays ironic tribute to the affluent society: "In the bad old days only very rich people could hope to enjoy surroundings like these. Now they're within the reach of all." While the men pub-crawl, the wives gossip, drink wine and discuss...
...could be the second front of Darth Vader's army. The hero: Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall), risking his world to save the flame-tressed Lyssa (Lysette Anthony). His hearty crew: a wizened wizard named Ynyr (Freddie Jones), a sad-faced Cyclops (Bernard Bresslaw), the scabrous brigand Torquil (Alun Armstrong) and Ergo, the inept conjurer (David Battley). The villain: a reptilian Beast who looks like the Alien from the Black Lagoon...
There are also at least eight senators who are certain or possible presidential candidates in 1984, among them Democrats Edward M Kennedy 54 of Massachusetts, Just re-elected; john Glenn of Ohio; Gary Hart of Colorado: Alun Cranston of California; and Republicans Baker of Tennessee and Bob Dole of Kansas...