Sifa 2026: Salesman之死 a bilingual ode to the translator who helps cultures talk to each other

Salesman之死

Jeremy Tiang & Danny Yeo
Victoria Theatre
May 15, 8pm

A confrontation between mother and daughter ends with the daughter kneeling on the floor, rolling her head as the thunder crackles.

Already, this reviewer groans, but apparently, so does 20th-century American playwright Arthur Miller.

Invited to Beijing to direct his famous Death Of A Salesman (1949) in Mandarin in 1983, he bristles at the melodramatic and ponderous exaggerations of Chinese theatre, shouting at the actors to speed up their lines and appalled at their intention to don blonde wigs and paint their faces white.

Singaporean translator Jeremy Tiang’s Obie Award-winning bilingual play with the bilingual title Salesman之死 is the quintessential soul song of a man used to working not just between two languages, but also two cultures.

Tiang has picked a moment in history before the internet global commons and one that is perhaps of niche interest to those already inclined to theatre.

But this is a more neglected moment of cultural exchange between America and China during the tail end of the Cold War, some 12 years after the better known sport counterpart with its catchy label of Ping Pong diplomacy – incidentally also dramatised by Singaporean artist Ming Wong in his lecture-performance Rhapsody In Yellow in 2024.

Its resonance today plays out against the backdrop of United States President Donald Trump’s visit to China and his handshake with China President Xi Jinping already sparking endless narratives of cultural ascent and decline.

In 1983, though, America is still spoken of with a certain magic by the actors, especially by translator Shen Huihui (Jodi Chan) and the play’s lead actor Ying Ruo Cheng (Tay Kong Hui), whose efforts scored the coup in the first place.

Salesman之死 focuses on the art-making rather than the rapturous result, with audiences effectively watching a montage of rehearsals. It is tongue-in-cheek, but also dead serious.

To Chinese Singaporeans straddling both cultures, it can feel a rehash of familiar, though true examples of mutual incomprehension, a sort of cultural caricature excused by the play’s dated, documentary premise. Though it is still amusing to see Huihui’s diplomatic attempts at blunting the edges of both sides’ barbs and the Chinese actors’ snide asides about capitalism.

Miller, played with the apt American accent by Gerald Chew, struggles to shave off just six seconds of the play after weeks of rehearsals while the Chinese actors congratulate one another and the playwright on the epic length of their translation.

A direction for a man to place a hand on a woman’s waist causes squeamishness. Each scene casts a shadow on the ideal of a common human nature, though of course, that the play is finally pulled off with such success offers some comfort.

Miller’s thoughts about the final enactment are not dwelled on.

Danny Yeo’s direction includes having a block of seats for some members of the audience on stage, a nod to Miller’s Beijing rehearsals often being watched by people whose identities were unknown.

They sit mostly unused until a more interesting documentary section sees two screens descending to play excerpts of interviews with the real Shen, while behind these translucent layers, the on-stage audience become the grey crowds of yesteryear watching Miller’s debut in 1983.

A gigantic two-storey set sits almost completely unused too. But they all come together to give the impression of a casual, lived-in rehearsal room, with a nerdy aside of the play’s own history in Singapore.

With Miller’s play, the Chinese actors had their world expanded.

Yeo perhaps makes the point through a bilingual Singaporean stage assistant that all Singaporeans today are translators too, an ability through which their own and others’ universes have been equally enlarged.

Book It/Salesman之死

Where: Victoria Theatre, 9 Empress Place
When: May 16, 2 and 8pm
Admission: $38 and $58, eligible for SG Culture Pass
Info: https://sifa.sg/plan-your-visit/all-programmes/programme-details/festival-stage/salesman