HAVING never performed on the Pavilion stage before until last year, David Hayman is almost immediately heading back to the Glasgow venue.
Last time, he was starring in Cyprus Avenue, David Ireland’s deeply disturbing black comedy about a man spiralling downwards into madness and despair.
“I think it is one of the best plays I’ve ever done,” he says. “The Pavilion audiences were fantastic – it was like a rock concert every night, with standing ovations, cheering....it was great.
“The Pavilion was the only Glasgow stage I hadn’t appeared on but now I have done them all. It’s exciting to be coming back.”
This time, David is starring as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s famous play Death of a Salesman, about, coincidentally, a man spiralling downwards into madness and despair….
“There are definite parallels with Eric in Cyprus Avenue,” agrees David, smiling. “Willy Loman lives in a fantasy world. He thinks he is the best salesman, the most wonderful man, and yet the sad truth is no-one comes to his funeral.
“He gets madder as he goes on, he’s like King Lear.
“It’s a tragedy, a magnificent one. Tragedies used to be about kings and queens and despots, but he is an ordinary man, a failed salesman.”
READ NEXT: Glasgow theatre jobs on offer as famous Gorbals venue prepares to re-open
READ NEXT: 'Most blasphemous play' one of 18 works coming to Glasgow's West End
He adds: “Arthur Miller said himself this is actually a love story, between a father and son. It’s about a father wanting his son to be everything he has never been.”
Death of a Salesman, written in 1949, is a timeless tale of ambition, family, and the price of chasing the American Dream. A journey through the final 24 hours of Loman’s life, filled with his memories, dreams and struggles, it is a heartbreaking and thought-provoking ook inside the mind of a man finally forced to face the truth about his life and legacy.
“It has a lot to say to modern audiences, 70-plus years on,” says David. “It’s about family, about dreams, about the lies we tell ourselves and the despair that comes from that.
“Loman is cruel, to his wife and sons - he snaps at the best pal he has in his life - he has real failings.
“It’s fascinating for me to be able to dig those out, and bring them alive.”
After the success of Cyprus Avenue, Trafalgar Theatres – who own the Pavilion – were keen to “do more”, says David.
“Andy [director Andy Arnold] and I suggested Death of a Salesman because we have both wanted to do it for a long time," he explains. "They jumped at it, which is great - it’s a huge coup for an all-Scottish company, to be taking this on a UK tour.”
He adds, with a grin: “It has a cast of 12, and for the first time in my life, I have an understudy. I don’t know what to do with an understudy."
Willy Loman is a "magnet of a part", says David.
“So many great American actors, and quite a few British ones, have played Willy Loman," he explains. "How could any actor worth their salt turn down a role like this?”
The cast also includes Beth Marshall as Loman’s wife Linda, and Daniel Cahill and Michael Wallace as his sons Biff and Happy.
The tour kicks off in Glasgow before touring around the UK and Ireland, taking in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin and more, until May.
“I like touring – I take a one man show on the road every two years, so I am used to it – but that’s usually just me and two other people hurtling around the Highlands in a van,” jokes David.
“This is a much bigger undertaking: trains, decent hotels…I’m looking forward to it.”
Generally considered one of theatre’s greatest works, Death of a Salesman is often revived. In the1990s, celebrated British actor Timothy West, who sadly died in November, aged 90, played the role of Loman at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow.
West surprised the matinee audience by returning to the stage at the end to give them a row, reported our sister newspaper The Herald, for “too much coughing.” Would David ever take an audience to task for coughing, talking or rustling sweetie packets?
“I don’t think I could do that,” says David, wincing. “Although, if people are at the theatre with a cold or a cough, they should always have sookie sweeties with them.
“That would be polite, wouldn’t it?” He pauses. “Ones without wrappers….”
Death of a Salesman is at the Pavilion Theatre from March 5 to 9.
Share