After the Fall

‘Much like Mr. Miller, Quentin is a witness to alarming public and personal catastrophes: the stock market crash, the Holocaust, the McCarthy witchhunts and the self-destruction of a show business idol to whom he is married.’

NEW YORK TIMES

Haunted by past romantic failures, Quentin, a New York City Jewish intellectual, retreats into his mind as he debates marrying for a third time. As he revisits past loves and losses, his mind and memory fragment under philosophical questions: are our failures really just our own? Or is it possible to hide away from the mistakes of the past?

One of Miller’s most personal plays, After the Fall takes place almost entirely inside the mind of the play's protagonist, who is often read as a stand-in for the playwright himself. Touching on themes of the Holocaust, McCarthyism, and inherited sin, the play is one of the most discussed within Miller’s canon.

This Methuen Drama Student Edition is edited by Ramón Espejo-Romero, with commentary and notes that explore the play's production history (including excerpts from an interview with Michael Blakemore, former Associate Director of the Royal National Theatre) as well as the dramatic, thematic, and academic debates that surround it.