Ti-Ahwaga actors tap into depth of ‘Death of a Salesman’ characters

Reviewd by George Basler

With Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller created one of the great dramas of the 20th century and one of the towering figures of American literature: Willy Loman, the doomed salesman of the title. So, I was more than a little worried while driving up Route 17 to Owego to watch the Ti-Ahwaga Community Players launch their season with a production of Miller’s classic play. The non-profit troupe can claim the title as the oldest, continually active community theater in upstate New York, but tackling Miller’s masterpiece is a daunting task for any non-professional, community theater. I dreaded the possibility of a very long evening.

The good news is that I didn’t need to worry. The Ti-Ahwaga actors, under the direction of James Osborne, turn in a solid and effective production that captures the emotion of  Miller’s great play about self-delusion, Oedipal confrontations between fathers and sons and what constitutes success, or failure, in American life. The production will run through Oct. 21.