The death of a playwright

Arthur Miller died yesterday. He was plain and simply the finest American Playwright of all time. Not just for the few plays he has done that everybody has heard about but for a large body of work, including one play you are probably not familiar with but that is currently being produced into a film.

In 1991 while I was living in London I saw a West End production of an Arthur Miller play called The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. It was the play's premiere and I remember thinking it was a real man's kind of story. Not that it was about football or something but that it really honestly delved into some emotions unique to us guys. The original show starred Tom Conti but the play never really took off after that, Miller rewrote parts of it and it had a so-so broadway run with Patrick Stewart and now Michael Douglas will star in the film. Perhaps it was too smarmy for some folk's taste.

If you are in England as an American you will find yourself constantly challenged as to why the USA deserves its spot as world cultural dictator. The Brits seem a bit insecure about their place in the mix because aside from the occasional Full Monty or something there artistic culture doesn't get much play globally lately. I generally agree with them that 90% of the movies/tv/music and plays that come out of the USA are total rubbish and if the rest of the world had any taste they would ignore it. But the problem is they don't, so as an American overseas you just have to grin and bear it. Ironically, it is actually much easier to avoid US popular culture in the USA than overseas.

My point is this though, while in London in 1991 I was frequently embarrassed by some of the American cultural imports, including the sickening Our Town, which was also playing in the West End at the time starring Alan Alda. It was not bad enough that every high school in the USA had to perform that horrible play, now it would be forced on the young drama students in England. When I was sitting in the theatre watching The Ride Down Mt. Morgan however I was quite proud to be watching a masterpiece from one of our own. Miller was able to arm me with a little ammunition when the inevitable America-bashing would start at my local pub later that evening.

Oh, and I forgot to mention he was an atheist and very outspoken against evangelicals so of course it goes without saying he is more than worthy to join the skepticklish hall of fame.