A Literary Giant

Characters were brought to life as famous playwright Arthur Miller delivered scenes from his satirical work Resurrection Blues to a packed Zellerbach Theatre last night.

"I was going to read from an essay I wrote ... which is called On Politics and the Art of Acting," Miller said, likening White House debates concerning the tone of Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission to the interaction between a director and an actor. "But I'm not going to talk about that, because it's too obvious."

Best known as the acclaimed playwright of Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge, among many other works, Miller spoke as the Philomathean Society's Annual Orator and for the Provost's Spotlight Series in an event also sponsored by the Social Planning and Events Connaissance Committee.

The event was held in conjunction with the Penn Library, the International Affairs Association and the English Department.

Miller's unscripted change in agenda was welcomed.

"Getting to hear one of the most famous playwrights of all time read a play of his [own] was amazing," Philomathean Society Moderator and College junior Nolan Shenai said.

The satire painted a vivid landscape wherein a South American general, threatened by the appearance of a Christ-like savior, sells the global television rights to the captured man's pending crucifixion to a New York advertising agency. Touching on issues such as pollution, war, spirituality, disproportionate allocation of wealth and public desensitization to televised violence, Miller did not shy away from the controversial.

"Is there a hole in the human anatomy they don't make a dollar out of?" asked Miller, in the role of the general's cousin, as audience members learned that the broadcasted crucifixion would be interspersed with crass advertisements for underarm deodorant, treatments for constipation and remedies for anal itch.

In response to questions from the audience, Miller discussed the concept of his play.

"It's an attack on the unreality of our intercourse," Miller said. "There are hundreds of people in prison without lawyers ... but there's no hysteria."

"It's done in the way you make hamburgers," Miller added, noting public apathy to the abrogation of human rights.

University Provost Robert Barchi, trying to place a question about activism in context for Miller, expressed his response to a polite student sit-in in College Hall several years ago that came complete with cookies.

"Don't you guys know how to demonstrate?" Barchi asked, noting the differences in today's activism efforts compared with those of the Vietnam War era.

In response, Miller elaborated on the reasons for this change.

"We don't have a draft now," Miller said. "You probably don't feel endangered. It's someone else doing the fighting ... . It's abstract."

Miller received a standing ovation from the transfixed audience.

"I fell in love with his imagination and ability to recount history in such a stylistic way," College freshman Wei Kuo Yen Dorado said.

In honor of Miller's visit, a Philomathean Society Theatre Workshop will be held this afternoon at Kelly Writers House.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.