by Richard De Luca
A World Premier NEW Drama
Directed by Penelope Keegan
20 Apr–5 May

This play examines the two ‘dreams’ in Death of a Salesman – the American Dream, and Willy Loman’s personal dream. Willy’s businessman grandson, Bill, is still hoping to crack the big time. Bill’s adult son, a drug addict, lives at home; his stepdaughter is a successful New York executive. They gather for Thanksgiving weekend, 2015, and struggle with the resulting catastrophic events.

The Playwright

Richard studied playwriting with Anton Piatigorsky and Paula Wing in Toronto during a sabbatical in 2014 before completing a Graduate Diploma in playwriting at the University of Auckland in 2016. Three of his one-act plays have been produced in Auckland. Death of a Dream is his first full-length play. It was shortlisted for the 2017 Adam NZ Play Award. During the day, Richard is currently studying to be a secondary math teacher.

For more read A Q&A with Richard de Luca

Families are a great source for the playwright – love, hate, jealousies, weaknesses, fears – strong emotions all seem to thrive in the melting pot of family relationships and this play has them all.  
Death of a Dream is a powerful play about the Loman family, two generations on from Willie Loman of Death of a Salesman. The struggle for success and fear of failure is still paramount and Bill Loman, his grandson, is a driven man.  He uses the failure of his father and grandfather as the driving force towards success – to the point of obsession. He is determined to succeed no matter what. But will that bring him happiness? In Bill’s mind the truly happy man is “the man who owes nothing to no-one” but as time tells, this is far from the truth.

It has been a privilege to be trusted with a brand new play and I have been very lucky to have such an experienced and committed cast. This has been an organic process in that the script has been tweaked by Richard in the early stages of rehearsal and the cast have had input into this. Richard has trusted us with his first play and I think the cast have honoured that in every way.

My heartfelt thanks go to a supportive team - as is well known, no production can go ahead successfully without a team of people that you, our dear audience, do not see. And thanks to you too for coming to see this play for without an audience this would be a fairly empty exercise. I very much hope that you enjoy it.

as Bill Loman

A native of Rotorua, John is a shy and introverted IT geek with a fear of crowds. Theatre was the obvious mountain to climb, and after 60+ productions he may be getting the hang of it. He believes that to understand story is to understand ourselves.

Working on an original play is a rare treat, and Bill is proving to be a complex and fascinating character.

as Carol Loman

Anna’s last performances at the Dolphin were in 2013’s Wife after Death, and Memory of Water.  In 2015 she was selected to train professionally with The Actor’s Program and subsequently continues her love of both theatre and screen work, performing in numerous web series, short films and plays - most recently in the classic Dial M for Murder. Anna is extremely proud to be a part of this ensemble and to be bringing this thought provoking work to life.

as Art Loman

Daley is excited to make his debut at the Dolphin. A graduate of the theater program at Emerson College in Boston, past credits include Hamlet by Shakespeare, Sexual Perversity In Chicago by David Mamet, Hidden In This Picture by Aaron Sorkin and A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner.  It's been a long time since Daley was in a full scale theatrical production and mostly he's just happy to be here, performing again.

as Suzy Loman

Kim Griffin grew up in the North East of England. She trained and graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She then went on to work as an actor in the UK for over 6 years. Her credits include; theatre, commercials, and film. Originally from NZ, Kim returned in 2013, to pursue a career in teaching. She gained a Masters in Education at the University of Canterbury and currently teaches in Auckland. This will be Kim's first acting role in New Zealand, and for the Dolphin Theatre.

As Naomi

Ngaire-Ann is excited to be playing Naomi in this very first production of Death of a Dream. She is also delighted to be working with the lovely director Penelope Keegan and talented cast.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the t-shirt ‘I’m that crazy aunty everyone warned you about’ well.... every family has a Naomi somewhere in their tree, even you.

Ngaire-Ann has been enjoying community theatre since 2010 when she auditioned for the first time since school and landed a role, and she hasn’t looked back, unless the director or script called for it. Musicals have also featured in her recent past, with her even learning to tap dance. This led to much hilarity in her kitchen one day as she practised, with not only her mother, but her aunty too, putting on the taps and performing musical numbers from their school days. No need to wonder where she gets her theatrical/musical/insanity genes from.

Many many thanks to the unseen crew who are an integral part of making the process magic J Ngaire-Ann is relieved in many ways to find the theatre family, it is so full of interesting people who are perhaps just as quirky as she is!

as Peter/Happy

I first acted at the dolphin in The Foreigner in the 1990's was happy to also receive Best Actor award that year. It was a brilliantly fun experience and the theatre bug bit hard. I went on to act and direct at various theaters around Auckland, also working as a professional actor during this time. My last role was at Dolphin was 5 years ago in On Golden Pond, also directed by Penelope Elliot. It's an honour to be part of this great cast in the world-first production of Death of a Dream.