How this theatre company is bringing cinema to stage in Death of a Salesman

The city's newest troupe, DARE Collective, will take on Arthur Miller's master work of American drama in a "risky" performance at the Earl Arts Centre starting February 21.

Salesman will be the third show ever from DARE, a company formed by artistic director Matthew Taylor, who said the show melds "reality with fantasy" through projection and approaches Miller's material from a new, modern angle.

"The mantra of DARE is to take risks and do new things; that's new things with content, with ideas, with people," Taylor said.

"So we're not going to do a classic play unless we can take a risk with it - so that's what we're trying to do with Salesman."

Miller's 1949 play is a devastating and scathing portrait of the American Dream and how one man's obsession with it - that man being Willie Loman, to be played by Launceston theatre legend Stan Gottschalk - ultimately leads to the collapse of his family.

"It's an interesting time to look at this show from a different perspective, rather than through the eyes of Willie, we want to look through the eyes of his son, Biff," Taylor said.

"We wanted to explore this idea of living in someone's shadow for your entire life and how we measure our successes.

"Because, really, there's this fantasy to that which isn't representative of reality - and that's where this interesting approach goes from just the narrative to how we're staging it, too."

DARE's take on the 1949 play will project pre-filmed scenes of Salesman's characters onto the set, having the cast interact with them, blurring the lines between tragedy and fantasy.

"What I wanted to bring to the stage is a man slowly losing his mind because of his constant pushing and driving for success," Taylor said.

"His world is crumbling."

And, aside from the intriguing approach to possibly the 20th century's greatest play, DARE's adaptation has an all-star backing of cast members including the likes of Kerri Gay, Gottschalk, Grady Lynch and more, with Taylor also starring and directing the show.

Set design has also been provided by Launceston artist Darryl Rogers.

"We have these Tasmanian theatre legends and a lot of younger actors working together for the first time, which is extremely exciting," Taylor said.

DARE Collective's production of Death of a Salesman arrives at the Earl Arts Centre on February 21 and runs until February 24.

More information and tickets can be found at the Theatre North website.