Okay, I'm in the US, but want to stick in my two cents..
Why are students made to read plays in school?
Plays are meant to be performed!
That's why Shakespeare wrote 'em...most people of that time were illiterate!
Forsooth! 
They weren't even published for the public until some time after his death.
It always amazes me that people think Shakespeare was some ivory-tower intellectual. He was a harried theatre manager trying to put on a new play every few months that people would like. He borrowed all but one of his plots from either other plays (Hamlet, Much Ado) or from history (Henry V, Macbeth). Only The Tempest is original with him.
As to the original question
I'm in Canada, and I didn't even know Death of a Salesman existed until I was in graduate school. Our Town is far better known, as is The Crucible and A Streetcar Named Desire. However, to be honest, in most of the country the theatre isn't at all a part of normal life. Most cities don't have a professional company, and those who do are fortunate if they have one sellout in a month.
