Comedy of a Common Man: Miller's Comedic Chops

Abstract

Abstract While critics have acknowledged the often comic moments in Miller's best-known tragedies and in 1968's The Price, which Miller labeled as a comedy, they tend to overlook other dramas that Miller wrote as fully comic, such as The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), Mr. Peters' Connections (1998), Resurrection Blues (2002), and Finishing the Picture (2004). These are plays that have a lot of connection to one another in terms of style and have found scarce production and lukewarm reception, mostly, I believe, because critics and audiences just do not know how to accept or understand Miller the comedian. This essay opens up that conversation and asks for a reconsideration of Miller's comic intents.