Venue: The Stanley Theatre
Dates: January 24 - February 24, 2002
Reviewer: Jane Penistan
What a play and how well directed and performed!
All My Sons, Arthur Miller's post war play examines family
relationships, business ethics and the turmoil of returning service
men to home based neighbours. A small town neighbourhood apparently
basks in the return of peace to the United States. It is a place to
pick up the pieces the war has shattered and settle back into a
profitable stable existence once again.
The war is over, most of the wounds are healing and the families and
children are safe. Beneath the surface, the hope of a mother whose son
is missing believed killed cannot be extinguished; the horror of killing
cannot be obliterated from the mind of the returning service man and
the unacknowledged guilt of the industrialist whose shoddy goods have led
to the deaths of untold young Americans cannot be reconciled.
The mother lies to herself and her family that her son will return .
The industrialist endeavours to persuade himself and his family that
his wealth is the result of hard work for the war effort and to give
his wife and children a life unencumbered by monetary worry. The son,
the veteran, suffers from the self-imposed guilt of surviving his
brother and his mates.
Disinterest in the family business and an inability to
know what to do with the rest of his life lead to conflict with his
father. Friendly neighbours and erstwhile schoolmates keep up the
façade of the world as the American dream come true and a future of
living happily ever after.
But this false security cannot last. Enter the girl
both brothers dated in high school,and her brother, once considered a
nonentity, now a talented lawyer, and hidden
malpractices are exposed. Ultimately, the sins are confronted and
acknowledged. The suppressed guilty knowledge is confessed, love and
affection effect reconciliation and, while life will never be the same
again, there is hope for the future if society accepts its
responsibility for all its members.
"No man is an island entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me
because I am involved in mankind". They are all my sons.
With John Cooper's admirable direction and the talent of the cast,
this beautifully constructed play comes to life on a stage looking
like all those comfortable well-established American homes of the
late 1940's and early 50's. One can almost smell the flowers and feel
the heat and humidity. The clothes too, add to this mid-century
picture - those full skirts and flat shoes. It becomes clear that the
time is soon after the cessation of hostilities in Europe and the
Far East.
Norman Browning and Martha Henry bring maturity and solidity to the
characters of Joe and Kate Keller. Kate is the mother who hopes
against hope that her lost son will reappear and that she will once
again be able to believe in Joe whose dishonesty she has lived with
and pretended to ignore for years. The strain of this is taking its
toll on her and she is suffering from unexplained ill health.
Joe is almost too self-assured, secure in the knowledge that he has
been exonerated from the accusation of knowingly supplying damaged
sub-standard cylinders to the U.S. Air Force. He cannot understand why
his son, Chris, (Jeffrey Renn) is unwilling to join him in the
profitable business he has worked hard to build up. He is proud of the
standard of living he provides for his wife and their remaining son,
and bitterly disappointed at Chris's disinterest in a career in
industry.
The Kellers are the leading family in the locality, if one is to judge
by the friendly neighbours who appear in the pleasant backyard of the
Keller home. Ann Deever, beautifully played by Laurie Paton, is the
girl who was engaged to Chris's dead brother, Her father was Joe's
business partner. Ann and Chris renew their adolescent mutual
affection and decide to become engaged.
George Deever, Ann's brother (Robert Maloney) arrives and with
him trouble and conflict. The boy whom the Kellers despised is now a
competent and established lawyer. He accuses Joe of having evaded
imprisonment for supplying faulty engine parts, by allowing his
partner, Deever, to be blamed, convicted and jailed. He strongly
objects to Ann's marrying Chris, saying that she is joining the family
who has ruined their own father.
George has done his research on the trial, and states
his case with clarity and conviction. This scene of George's accusation
and Ann's divided loyalty is convincingly and powerfully acted. It is
Kate who ultimately forces Joe to admit his guilt and perfidy.
All along she has known this, but like the death of her pilot son, she
has willed herself not to believe it. Now Kate shows her real strength
and Joe his weakness, pleading that he did what he did only for his
wife and his children's future, though Joe is deluding no one but
himself.
Kate's returning strength, with the relief from her burden of
deception and Joe's disintegration at his finally being brought face
to face with his misdeeds are superbly performed. Mention should also
be made of Stephen Dimopoulos who portrays a wise small town doctor who
has the interests of his patients at heart.
All My Sons could be considered a period piece, but like most long
lived and popular period pieces, it is apposite to today. War is
still waging and war crimes of one sort or another are reported daily
in the news media. Maybe the actual hostilities are far away, but let
us remember as Arthur Miller reminds us, we all have a responsibility
to one another and those on active service are all our sons.
© 2002, Jane Penistan