Megan Lear who plays The Mistress in Eleanor Burgess’s, “Wife of a Salesman” looks up at Teri Clark Linden who plays the Wife, during rehearsals for the show which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 17 at the Riffe Center. Credit: Courtesy of Alexa Baker
A classic play is getting a brand-new coat of paint.
The Contemporary Theatre will stage “Wife of a Salesman,” a play written by Eleanor Burgess that follows a 1950s housewife who confronts her husband’s mistress. The production — based on Arthur Miller’s 1948 play “Death of a Salesman,” which centers around a traveling salesman who grapples with the failures of his life, including being unfaithful to his wife — will have showtimes beginning this Thursday until Nov. 17.
Megan Lear, the actress playing “Mistress/Violet”, said she appreciates how “Wife of a Salesman” modernizes a classic play, tackling issues related to prescribed gender roles and family structures.
“I’m absolutely obsessed with this show,” Lear said. “It’s really interesting to see this take on ‘Death of a Salesman,’ where the playwright does an incredible job at bringing the issues that women were facing back then to today’s light, and it being not all that different even though it looks like we’ve come a long way.”
Leda Hoffmann, The Contemporary Theatre’s artistic director, said her goal is to stage shows that are relevant to the local community.
“It’s my job to listen to the community and think about the topics or ideas that folks are discussing and thinking about,” Hoffmann said. “To be able to bring this brand-new play to Columbus that asks, ‘What would the women be doing in this story?’ it forces you to think about how those gender roles have changed people’s lives, the choices we have to make.”
Hoffmann said collaborating with actors and artists native to Ohio is a crucial part of this process.
“I think there’s a certain perspective that people bring to what a play looks like,” Hoffman said. “Ohio artists know what folks seeing theater in Columbus are thinking about. We are coming together from a specifically Ohio perspective to think about how this show speaks to our neighbors as audience members.”
Hoffmann also said she believes theater has the power to change how people view the world.
“Empathy is at the heart of everything that we do,” Hoffmann said. “We really believe that plays can change the way that people think. In ‘Wife of a Salesman’ specifically, I’m just so excited about the way it asks you to think about the women in your life.”
Notably, The Contemporary Theatre is just the third theater nationwide to put on this play, Hoffmann said. For actors like Lear, this creates a distinct challenge that she said she’s looking forward to.
“I frequently end up in Shakespeare shows where there is a wealth of YouTube videos of people doing the roles that I can pull ideas from, so I kind of like this experience of letting me do what I want to do,” Lear said.
Lear said she also looks forward to portraying a witty character like Violet, comparing her emotional journey to a metaphorical “sword fight,” with many conflicts arising throughout the play.
“The mistress, in particular, is so much fun,” Lear said. “The way she battles with the wife, [and they’re] always trying to one up each other is really cool, and being able to play that sword fight for 90 minutes is gonna be a lot of fun.”
According to The Contemporary Theatre’s website, $20 student tickets will be available at the theater two hours before showtime.
“Pay-what-you-want” tickets — which allow attendees to choose how much they want to pay for a single ticket, with the minimum amount being $1.05 due to baseline fees — are available for preview performances through the theater’s ticket office up to two hours before showtime.
For more information about “Wife of a Salesman” itself, visit The Contemporary Theatre’s website.
