DEATH OF A SALESMAN

A standout performance by Stacy Fischer as Willy’s wife, Linda, balances Willy’s depression and angst. She is the one who’s kept the family alive and functioning, and for much of the play she’s a glass-half-full sort of presence. She freaks out, however, when thinking that Willy might commit suicide; and Fischer handles her transition from “we’ll get by” to a future darker than anything they’ve experienced until that moment with fantastic realism. She knows all Willy’s secrets (borrowing money from their neighbor Charley to pay life insurance and other bills), and, after discovering the rubber hose hidden behind the heater, lives in fear that Willy will try to asphyxiate himself.