SOMEONE suggested, at the launch of the Playhouse’s current season, that staging familiar plays by writers such as Arthur Miller and Noel Coward was playing it safe.

Pieces like Death Of A Salesman – and Hay Fever which follows in June – may be tried and tested and a guarantee of good box office, but that doesn’t mean things can’t go horribly wrong.

Cast the wrong Willy Loman, don’t stop the cast tipping over into melodrama, fail to find the right set for a play that skips through time zones... and you can fall flat on your face.

None of that, I’m happy to report, applies to this superlative revival by Sarah Esdaile, that brings together all the elements with meticulous precision without sacrificing the emotional heart of the drama.

You might think you know Miller’s dissection of a man finding the American Dream turning into a nightmare, but this staging makes it seem brand new.

Francis O’Connor’s set, making full use of the Quarry Theatre’s massive stage, is a triumph and a key player in keeping what’s a long – threehour – play moving and delivers a last-minute coup de theatre that adds, not diverts, from the final tragic moments.

Philip Jackson isn’t perhaps the first person you’d think of for Willy Loman, the travelling salesman worn down by a life on the road and a family life that only adds to his worries.

But he rises magnificently to the challenge, combining the physical (not just the accent, but his whole body movement) and emotional in a performance that grows stronger as the drama unfolds.

Lex Shrapnel as his disappointment of a son, Biff, and Nick Barber, as the more upbeat younger brother, lend fine support, as does Marion Bailey’s long-suffering and resigned wife, Linda.

■ Until May 29. Tickets 0113- 2137700 and online wyp.org.uk