Arthur Miller: Rapture Theatre on his centenary
Michael Emans talks about Arthur Miller's centenary and how Rapture Theatre chose to honour it this autumn
Rapture Theatre are fifteen years old this year, but the birthday they want to celebrate is that of playwright Arthur Miller in his centenary year. “We’re very keen to give as much to his work as possible,” says artistic director Michael Emans, calling The Skinny from rehearsals. “We’ve produced some of his work before and we’ve premiered some of his work in Scotland. The centenary was a way to look at the scope of his work.”
The company are touring first All My Sons, written in the late 1940s, followed by The Last Yankee, penned in 1993. “It’s interesting to see the change and the developments between the two plays,” Emans says, seeing similarities and differences in the texts. “The Last Yankee is a much quieter piece, much more delicate as a piece of writing, whereas All My Sons is much more full-blooded. It’s very theatrical, it’s very full on. To me the contrast in them showed a really good range to Miller’s writing.”
“There’s an awful lot of references in All My Sons to how people are stuck in the past and can’t move on and in The Last Yankee the whole crux of it is whether this woman can try and move on to a better life. There’s also very much a thing about society in Miller. In All My Sons it’s the idea of war profiteering and how you come back and juggle having to make decisions that are contrary to the general good and balancing that out. In The Last Yankee, Leroy has eschewed that competitive lifestyle and has instead chosen one that’s much more sedate, but that has an effect on his wife whereby she feels that he’s not successful enough. Leroy makes a decision that is quite an honourable one but the ramifications of it are quite detrimental. It’s how you balance out the desires of the individual against the desires of the greater good. It’s a very interesting piece of theatre. They’re both tremendously well-written pieces.”
It’s the strength of writing that draws Rapture to Miller’s work, and to any work they produce. “We’ve always been drawn to writing that has a purpose with strong characters and strong narrative, that tells a strong story and has powerful themes, that still resonates today even if the play was written fifty years ago. It’s got to connect with an audience today and place characters in that situation that an audience can engage with.” Whether it be work to the scale and acclaim of Miller's, or new, contemporary work, as with their past production, Shang-a-Lang, a Bay City Rollers play by the writer of Mamma Mia.
“With Shang-a-Lang in particular it was a different spin as well on what can be a predictable genre, the girls' night out piece, because at the end of the play they all go their separate ways and I think that was quite an interesting twist on it. We do cover a broad range of work but it’s really down to quality writing, getting really exciting actors to work with and producing really good quality work and then getting it out to audiences around the country.”
All My Sons is touring to five locations around the country, before The Last Yankee tours to over twenty. “Whether you’re in Selkirk or Inverness you should be able to access really good quality theatre on your doorstep; you shouldn’t have to travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh,” says Emans – and they’re set to offer exactly that this autumn.
All My Sons, touring, 1-26 Sep
The Last Yankee, touring, 1 Oct-7 Nov