THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, December 15, 1994            TAG: 9412140203
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS          PAGE: 20   EDITION: FINAL 
COLUMN: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

`SALESMEN' WORKS FOR ODU PLAYERS

Billed as a ``post-modern interpretation of an American classic,'' the ODU Players' production entitled ``Salesmen'' proved that Arthur Miller's ``Death of a Salesman'' can be reworked into a one-act, one-hour avant-garde piece.

``Salesman'' roughly followed the course of Miller's play, presenting abstracted versions of scenes from the conventional script.

There were readings from Miller's own comments upon the play and a small amount of text not written by Miller.

Program notes described the work as ``a collaboration between the students and faculty'' of a workshop class. Separate passages within the piece were sufficiently different in their approach and style to suggest that responsibility of each segment had been allotted to a different individual. The sense was that those segments, worked up in rehearsals separate from each other, were then strung together to form the final piece.

Among the performers, Adam Jones projected a shambling sort of loose-limbed vitality that was especially strong. His movement suggested power that was not so much restrained as lying dormant, power that its possessor did not even know he had.

Jones and Edwin Castillo were given a number on lines that Miller wrote for Willy Loman.

Castillo executed his tasks with crispness and definition, an implicit counterpoint to Jones' more diffuse approach. Celia Burnett brought to her acting a sensuality mingling the raw appeal of an earth-mother with the refined frankness of a free-spirited society woman.

Fair being fair, the hard-working other members of the company were Cynthia Murrell, Christopher Bailey, Amanda Saidel, Eleanor Earl, Carrie Holmes, Darren Cole, Keith Butler and Catherine Breen.

The preparation and performance of ``Salesman'' was doubtless an interesting educational experience for these students, which after all is the point of any production in the academic theater. One hopes that they recognized the richness of their raw material and came to understand that even the most radical departures from a script must begin with great respect for the author's words and their meaning. by CNB