THEATRE REVIEW: The Man Who Had All The Luck, Liverpool Playhouse

Apr 16 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Andrew Buchan in The Man Who Had All The Luck, Liverpool Playhouse _320

THE title of Arthur Miller’s early play The Man Who Had All the Luck explains the plot but not its subtle nuances.

t is those nuances which drive this new touring production, finely directed by Sean Holmes for the Donmar company

It is one thing to present a lucky character, quite another to show its effect on those around him and on the man himself.

The man in question, David Beeves, finds everything goes his way: when a belligerent father refuses his daughter’s hand in marriage to Beeves, the father is conveniently killed in an accident.

Although not trained as a car mechanic he discovers an innate ability, and when unable to fix an unfamiliar car for an important man, a chap who can just happens to walk into his garage.

But while he is succeeding, all around are failing. There’s the man whose past drinking has prevented him having the children he wanted, a brother Amos whose baseball pitching skills remain undiscovered and the previously successful man now confined to a wheelchair.

Eventually, they start despising him for his luck and he just wants catastrophe to fall on himself.

There are hints of Miller’s tragic plays to follow, but the young Miller was more optimistic.

The play was rarely produced after its four night Broadway run in 1944 but as its recent discovery indicates, there is a lot to admire and this production makes the most of it.

The dialogue crackles, there are some nice ideas (man’s life being like a jelly fish on a shore moved by the tides) and some excellent characterisations.

Andrew Buchan makes the most of the hapless Beeves but the meatier roles are those like the gruff businessman Dan Dibble of James Hayes, the mysterious stranger Gus of Shaun Dingwall, and the dim-witted and ultimately sad Amos of Felix Scott.