Every once in a while there’s a production of a classic play that not only does it justice, but lends it new resonance. The Ubuntu Theater Project’s breathtaking, heartbreaking “Death of a Salesman” is case in point.

Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1949 drama kicks off the company’s 2017 season in residence at Brooklyn Preserve, an abandoned historic church in Oakland, after an Ubuntu/Inferno Theatre co-production of “Waiting for Godot” that’s running elsewhere in the building on Monday nights through the end of February.

Performed in the circular upstairs room where Ubuntu staged Katori Hall’s “Hurt Village” last year, this “Salesman” is beautifully directed by co-artistic director Michael Moran with elegant framing choreography in which the action is always witnessed by a somber ensemble in black trench coats, fedoras and umbrellas.

The cast is onstage as the audience enters, the ensemble sitting around the perimeter of the stage reading newspapers. Autumn leaves are piled around the edges, and an open refrigerator is stuffed with leaves, a football and some sneakers in the haunting set by Inferno producing artistic director Giulio Cesare Perrone (who directs “Godot”). In the center of the room is Julian López-Morillas as Willy Loman, looking as if he’s fallen asleep sitting up on a large throne of stacked suitcases.

Veteran Shakespearean actor López-Morillas gives a devastating performance as Willy, an aging traveling salesman who’s too exhausted to drive long distances anymore. He talks to himself incessantly and lashes out at everyone in the manner of someone terrified that his mind might be slipping.

But Willy has been scared for a very long time. He’s always been a big talker, boasting about high sales and how well he’s treated wherever he goes, but we bear witness to the deep insecurity that lies beneath — not just now in the waning of his career, when he can’t manage to make ends meet, but even in flashbacks to the days when business was good, though never as good as he pretended it was.

Dawn Troupe exudes kindness, protectiveness and almost saintlike patience as Linda, Willy’s long-suffering and adoring wife. Nathaniel Andalis is palpably steeped in depression as their adult son Biff, who’s been adrift for many years and bears a deep-seated resentment of his father. It’s the story of Willy and Biff’s relationship that proves the most heartrending, as we witness how doting and hopeful the son was in his youth and gradually learn how that relationship — and his life — fell apart.

In striking contrast, Mohammad Shehata (who plays Pozzo in “Godot”) is hyperactive and almost sociopathically glad-handing as the womanizing younger son Happy, who favors lying to try to keep his father happy. Norman Gee is quietly amiable as friendly neighbor Charley, whom Willy sees as a rival and keeps putting down out of jealousy, and J Jha (Vladimir in “Godot”) is full of anxious energy as Charley’s nerdy son Bernard, a childhood friend of Biff’s.

Erik-Jon Gibson conveys an infuriating mixture of self-absorbed triviality and cold-blooded expediency as Howard, the young and unappreciative boss at the company where Willy’s worked longer than Howard’s been alive. Margherita Ventura’s ringing laughter proves chilling in flashback scenes to an affair. William Oliver III plays a laid-back waiter, and Danie Valdivies doubles as a disapproving secretary and a young woman roped into a bad date with the Loman brothers.

Ubuntu’s production makes you rediscover the brilliance of Miller’s play, from its almost nightmarish structure to the tangled and thorny character portrait of Willy. For anyone who’s ever felt inadequate or adrift, or who’s ever broken a family relationship in a way that feels like it can never be fixed, the story’s resonance is gut-wrenching. Linda Loman says in her most iconic speech that “attention must be paid,” and this “Salesman” truly commands it.

Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.

‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN’

By Arthur Miller, presented by Ubuntu Theater Project

Through: March 5

Where: Brooklyn Preserve, 1433 12th Ave., Oakland

Running time: Three hours, one intermission

Tickets: $15-$35; www.ubuntutheaterproject.com