Sold out by the American dream

US actor Patrick Cronin returns to his Cork roots for an iconic role, says Colette Sheridan

AS part of The Gathering, Irish-American actor, Patrick Cronin, stars in Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman, at Cork’s Everyman Theatre from May 20-25. The production is directed by Sasha Dundjerovic, head of drama and theatre studies at UCC and founder of Kolective Theatre Company.

For Cronin, who plays the lead, Willy Loman, the aging, down-on-his-luck salesman, working in Cork is a home-coming. Cronin, the son of a Mallow-born father and a Co Mayo-born mother, was contacted by relatives in Mallow. Born in Philadelphia in 1941, Cronin says he had an identity crisis. He spoke with “a brogue” until the age of six, when it was knocked out of him by cruel classmates.