KARACHI: One of the interesting aspects of playwright Arthur Miller`s scripts is that reading them requires as much patience and diligence as performing them on stage.

Death of a Salesman is, arguably, his most celebrated play. In fact, the word `celebrated` isn`t right. It`s a play that no theatre practitioner can ignore in their career, simply because of the layers it carries in a story which on surface is about the life of a family and its aging figurehead.

An Urdu version of the play penned by Mujtaba Zaidi and directed by Faizan Chawla opened on Wednesday for a five-day run at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa).It has the 63-year-old Willy Loman (Usama Khan) at its core. He is a traveling salesman and when the curtains go up, he has returned home without being successful at work. He now works on commission. He has a son, Biff (Zohair Zubair), who has come back into the household fold after roaming around the country, directionless.

His younger son Happy (Ashmal Lalwany) works at a department store. Loman thinks that Biff has never lived up to his talent. His wife Linda (Safia Bhalaisha) is supportive of the husband but also notices the growing despondency in him. They also have a neighbour Charley (Jameel) and his son Bernard (Waqas Akhter), who have done well for themselves, something Loman brings up in the form of comparison, arguing despite not having charm, the neighbours are financially well-off. Then there`s the character Loman`s mistress known as The Woman (Saima Kamal) who he hears in his imagination.

Loman`s economically challenged situationhas made him churlish. He is not okay with the way Biff has led his life, a fact that comes to the fore in the form of his off and on cribbing. While the family tries to appease him, he intends to seek a job in another city and fails. This adds to the complexity and tragedy of things.

Death of a Salesman is about failure in pursuit of a dream and how the disappointment of a single person can impinge on his loved ones and reflect, in the larger context, on how a society based on materialistic gains functions.

The Urdu version tries hard to do justice to the original text by keeping the performances high-strung (characters opt for loudness and a speed-through style of delivering the lines to put their message across).

It works because it engages the audience.

That`s what really counts. But it can also blur the line between drama and melodrama. And having such an important text to work with, phrases such as maghaz maari can trivialise the effort a bit.