All My Sons

Arthur Miller’s play is a difficult one to stage in England; it’s set in a small American town just after the Second World War - both recognisable and distinctly foreign.  Recognisable from the set - the beautifully realised back yard of the Kellers’ clapboard suburban house - but foreign people.  It’s not just the accents that are different, it is the way of speaking - the rhythm of the sentences - and the attitudes behind them.  There’s the anti-intellectualism of Joe Keller (David Balfour), the approach to marriage and success, epitomised by Sue (Hannah Marks) pushing her husband Dr Jim Bayliss (Phil Rainforth) into the financial rewards of general medical practice against his inclination to pursue less lucrative but more fulfilling research.  Then there’s the personality of Kate Keller (Sarah Short) which makes the first act hard work for the audience.  The Kellers’ eldest son, Larry, went missing in action in the war.  Kate is in denial, and Sarah Short’s performance did exactly what it was intended to do: leave the audience exasperated by her unwillingness to come to terms with her son’s death and let the rest of the characters get on with their lives.

This comes to a head with the arrival of Ann (Emma Buck), the daughter of Joe’s jailed former business partner.  She was “Larry’s girl”, but has come in order to accept a proposal of marriage from his idealistic younger brother, Chris (Vic Milne).  Of course Kate is opposed to this - it would mean admitting that Larry was dead - and seems to leave Joe as piggy-in-the-middle.

The focus changes in the second act with the arrival of Ann’s brother, George (Shawn Condra).  He arrives straight from a visit to his father in prison, filled with righteous anger.  The imprisonment was for shipping defective aircraft engine parts from the factory - Joe’s factory - which lead to the deaths of pilots.  Joe was also tried for the crime, but blamed it entirely on his partner and got off.  Kate charms George into calming down, but a stray word brings the argument into sharp focus and we see Kate’s real dilemma: if she admits that her son is dead, she must also admit that her husband was responsible for the deaths of young men just like him.

This was a fine realisation of a gripping drama about business and personal morality.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.