In the last year or so I've been going to the theatre again. When I was a teenager I would attend every performance put on by the Canberra Repertory Society and the Canberra Philharmonic. I've felt that there's something magical about a live performance. The greasepaint and the the actors treading the boards. The spotlights and the orchestra. And that magic happens when the curtain rises and you're transported to another world.

Miss Seventeen has been studying The Crucible for school this year so when I saw that Death of a Salesman was coming to Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre, starring Anthony LaPaglia in his Australian stage debut, I just had to get us tickets. Unbelievably I've never seen an Arthur Miller play so I was super psyched to see this production. After all, Miller is known as one of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century.

Given the title of the play I wasn't expecting an uplifting afternoon but it wasn't as bleak as I thought it would be either. It was more of a slow burn with characters and moments that stayed with me after the play was over. La Paglia's performance was quiet and understated. The standout for me was the actor playing his wife - Alison Whyte in the role of  Linda Loman. Her performance was powerful and painful.

The play was a combination of delusions, dreams, memories and events that played out against a set of bleachers for a baseball game. The actors not involved in the scene sat in the stand instead of being offstage and played the part of the crowd for the game. The story of Willy Loman, the travelling salesman was tragic in every sense of the word and it's easy to see why the play is so famous. What's not so easy to fathom is why it is so popular given its scathing commentary on the unobtainable nature of the great American dream.

Part way through the second half there were some technical difficulties that stopped the play and dropped the curtain. Just before the play recommenced, La Paglia came out on the stage to tell us an anecdote about being on the set of a Miller production. Apparently there were a whole heap of magazines on a table and one had Marilyn Monroe on the cover. The cast would always hide the Marilyn magazine when Miller visited the set except one day they didn't. They all anxiously watched Miller, wondering if he would spot the magazine. He did, flipped through the pages, read a bit, closed the magazine and said, "Well you learn something new everyday.'