Central and yet also incidental is the man whom Victor has asked to value the furniture.  Henry Goodman is in his element, giving a masterclass as Gregory Solomon, the 89 year old retired furniture dealer.  It was a very old copy of the Yellow Pages, Victor was using to find a second hand furniture dealer.  Much of the first act sets up the play.  Gregory tells us about his three ex-wives and then remembers it was really four.  Victor and Esther spar over the retirement future as she wants him to start a better career and he lacks the drive to embark on a return to science.

Jon Bausor’s set design goes overboard on an attic stuffed full of a whole 19th century house worth of old, large wardrobes, library shelving, two chiffonieres, pile of old chests of drawers and chairs in natural dark wood.  There is also a full size harp that belonged to the brothers’ mother.  We know what kind of furniture they are talking about and how it is too large for modern apartments.  

When you have seen a few Arthur Miller plays, the themes of the past and family secrets resonate with the regrets that his characters have about what might have been.  There is also whom to blame for an opportunity not taken.  These are profoundly deep plays with a dramatic sense of slow disclosure. The expertise of a playwright at the top of his form is matched only by the casting and performances here.  

Elliot Cowan gives the good looking Victor a hesitant charm, sadly coupled with our frustration at his dithering lack of resolve.  Faye Castelow’s Esther convinces you that she has probably had more than one drink as she erupts into shouting at Victor, while she sports her much admired new fashionable suit, which has cost twenty times that of a cinema ticket.  She made me shudder.  There is huge fuss too when Victor has coffee spilt over his suit meaning he has to go to the cinema in uniform.  Esther is concerned that “everyone will know how much you earn.”