Charles Queary and Mary Ann Rogers Photo by Robin Jackson

So it was with some disappointment that I left The Barn (RVP's home) after the three-hour production feeling an overwhelming sense of "meh." Given that the play is one of the most performed in the American canon, and recently had a well-received Broadway revival (starring Nathan Lane as Willy Loman), this lukewarm reaction is clearly due to the rather tepid direction and overall blandness of RVP's take on the show. If it were possible for two stellar performances to save an entire production, this would be a very different review.

Death of a Salesman requires, especially for small theatre companies, a rather large cast. There are a baker's dozen of characters on the boards here, which may partly explain why the set, designed by Ron Krempetz, is so bland and minimal. Upstage is an off-kilter outline of a house composed of a dozen or so lengths of lumber. The rest of the space is populated by a couple of benches, a table, and two very simple straight-back chairs. All of it is painted a dull grey. It's as if RVP looked at the budget for cast and only had a couple of hundred dollars left over to build a set.

Fortunately for the audience, Mary Ann Rodgers and Brennan Pickman-Thoon deliver wondrous performances that almost saved the entire show. As Linda Loman, Willy's long-suffering wife, Rodgers gives one of the most nuanced and genuine performances I've seen this year. Willy, being almost obsessively concerned about being "well liked" and prone to intemperate outbursts, is quite the handful, and Linda bears much of the brunt of his ire. She is the person who sees Willy most clearly, and she catches the blast radius of his self-loathing. Rodgers is so skilled at walking the very thin line between her character's competing senses of love and duty that we can almost see the fissure growing in her psyche. When she gives the "attention must be paid" speech, her empathy almost makes you want to shout "pay attention to yourself! Put your own mask on first!"

As Biff, Willy's oldest, and most wayward son, having returned from some time in Texas, failing once again to find a path for himself, Brennan Pickman-Thoon shows why he is one of the Bay Area's most talented thespians. Though his throwing skills don't do much to support the idea that he's his school's star quarterback (put some zip on that ball!), his performance never fails to convince us of the hurts he has received over the years from his father, nor the foolish decisions he has made that are now coming home to roost.

Charles Queary does a serviceable job as Willy, but fails to reveal a deep enough exploration of the character to enable us to truly feel Willy's foundering as he treads the narrow ridge between his glory days and his current impotence in the marketplace. It doesn't help that Queary seemed to struggle a bit in remembering his lines, or that he appears significantly older than the character's stated age.

Ultimately, I suppose much of the fault for all this lies with Adrian Elfenbaum's direction. The pacing and the blocking all felt so flaccid and uninspired that the three-hour running time felt much longer.

Ross Valley Players' Death of a Salesman runs through October 25, 2026, at The Barn, in the Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross CA. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $45 general admission, $30 for those under 18. For tickets and information, please call 415-456-9555, ext. 3 or visit www.rossvalleyplayers.com.