‘Priceless Themes’ …

‘Priceless Themes’ by Ms Paige Turner
Arthur Miller always placed his theme at the top of every A4 sheet of paper he was typing. ‘Theme’ is the core of a piece of writing: this Miller knew well and took great pains to encapsulate his theme not only in every sheet of paper but in his titles. Thus is ‘The Crucible’ a means of heating a substance which dissipates into the air or a severe and testing trial which produces something new? Are we talking about the burning of witches or are we talking about persecution of the innocent? Whose view are we observing in ‘A View from the Bridge’? Are we observing the incoming illegal immigrants from a safe and cosy stance? Who exactly are immigrants? And without giving a spoiler who exactly are the sons in ‘All my Sons’? I love Miller’s double entendres. Or multi-entendres.
Last week Mister Justin Case and I went to see David Suchet in Miller’s ‘The Price’ at the Wyndhams. Are we talking about the price the assessor is offering two brothers for their deceased father’s furniture or are we talking about the price we pay for the choices we make in life? ‘The price we pay for our lost loves’ quoted from Jan Moran Neil’s poem ‘Bread Pudding Days’ and published in her collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’. (I just love to be mentioned in the same paragraph as Arthur Miller …)
On quite a different theme, two days later on Good Friday we took our granddaughter Princess Maddie, along with her parents: Miss Trial and Master Mind to see ‘Where is Peter Rabbit?’ at the Haymarket. He was of course, nowhere to be found. The rest of the weekend was about bunny hunting.