THERE is always a price to pay in an Arthur Miller play.
Yet another family ends up in shreds after the internecine warfare of a damned and draining drama, this one set in 1968, but with its root and heart in the Wall Street Crash that so shaped Miller himself.
The New Yorker was the son of a clothing manufacturer brought down by the American Depression that also took its toll on the father of Victor (Robert G Slade) and Walter (Peter Banks).
Victor, slim and greying, is a decent if self-destructively stubborn New York cop on the cusp of retirement at 50.
He is in the process of disposing of his late father's furniture in the attic of a Manhattan brownstone, full to the brim in Neil Irish's draped design.
His ever anxious wife, Esther (Amanda Bellamy), always one drink short of satisfaction, goes for another of her walks to leave him to deal with Solomon (Stuart Richman), an 89-year-old antiques dealer as sage as his biblical namesake.
Chomping on a hard-boiled egg while deliberating over the sale price, Richman's Solomon milks the Jewish comedy in this genial role, but the levity of an Arthur Daley rogue will not last.
Suddenly, Victor's elder brother, Walter (Canadian actor Peter Banks) turns up after 16 years of no communication.
An imposing figure in a luxurious fawn coat, Banks's bullish Walter has the gait of a successful man, in contrast to the buttoned-up Victor.
Walter had the education and the subsequent high-profile career as a doctor; Victor gave himself over to tending to his father after the Crash. Resentment has bubbled away ever since, and at last the brothers will air long-repressed grievances.
In our own selfish age, the theme of personal responsibility and social conscience is ever topical, and it is a painfully frank play to endure, albeit one leavened by Solomon's intrusions.
Sheffield's Compass Theatre Company has made an impressive return to York after nine years, with a production of superbly-weighted dialogue and a devastating performance by Banks.
Neil Sissons moves his cast around the stage without over-doing it, and how telling it is that only Solomon, and never the brothers, should sit in the father's old chair.
The Price, Compass Theatre Company, York Theatre Royal, until May 5.
Box office: 01904 623568.
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