The couple’s two adult sons, Biff (Alex Pollock) and Happy (Jack Aschenbach), both live at home. Biff has returned to the East after a gig working with horses in Texas. We’re introduced to the brothers in a lighthearted scene where the table functions as a bunk bed. They reminisce about girls, but the atmosphere soon grows melancholic. Pollock’s performance as Biff, a man who’s uncertain of himself, stooped, with eyes slightly downcast, cuts deep. “I’ve always made a point of not wasting my life,” he tells his brother. “And every time I come back here, I know that all I’ve done is to waste my life.” Happy, who is more outwardly successful, is still disillusioned. He feels frustrated by working in an office. The brothers talk about buying a ranch out West, but it’s just one of many unlikely fantasies running through the play — ideas the cast members spin vividly despite the spare staging.

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.

The Harbor Stage Company’s production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman proves that great theater doesn’t require expensive sets or extensive cast lists, just exceptional performances. The show is thoughtfully heavy, touching on themes of disillusionment and betrayal, and extremely relevant as the American dream continues to be redefined. While the cast for this tale of an American salesman losing his grip on the American Dream is made up of only four characters, this deepens the audience connection to the play by allowing for deeply intimate and powerful scenes.