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A CurtainUp Review
All My Sons
By Elyse Sommer
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Who worked for nothin' in the war? When they work for nothin', I'll work for nothin'. Did they ship a gun or a truck out of Detroit before they got their price? Is that clean? It's dollars and cents, nickels and dimes. What's clean? Half the Goddam country is gotta go [to jail} if I go!. . .Why am I bad?— Joe Keller rationalizing his selling cracked Cylinder heads to the Army Air Force. I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father—Chris, who like his fallen brother Larry, thinks his father should have realized the men fighting World War II were "all his sons." |
John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Patrick Wilson
(Photo: Joan Marcu)
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Actually, Miller's plays have previously inspired directors to mount his plays with less naturalistic stagecraft. Michael Mayer's stark Hopper-like set for the 1997 revival of A View From the Bridge focused more on the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge than the furnishings of the Carbone home; Robert Falls' 1999 revival of Death of a Salesman was of a piece with the expressionistic dream scenes and the turntable set was furnished with the barest minimum of props. Thus McBurney, best known for his Complicité company's cutting edge work, is not the first to take a Miller classic into experimental territory. In fact, he has been quoted as saying that he felt free to do so, after Miller, during a chance meeting, told him that he thought directors took his plays too literally.
McBurney has not just stripped the Keller home of furnishings but torn down the walls, leaving only an upstage door leading to a vast, barren backyard devoid of the homey-ness associated with middle class Americana. While that backyard with its chainlink fences leading to the neighboring houses is not particularly attractive and the glimpses of actors waiting to return to center stage in the wings on each side tend to be distracting, it is one of many ways Mr. McBurney takes this sixty-year-old play into the twenty-first century.
The overall production chucks realism off the stage, even before the Keller's tragic saga begins, the entire cast walks on stage in a sort of reverse curtain call. John Lithgow, who plays the morally compromised businessman Joe Keller, steps forward, announces that the play is about to begin and reads the first few lines of the script. ("The backyard of the Keller home on the outskirts of an American town. . .". His words are also projected on a back panel, as are scene announcements throughout. This is followed by a very brief, wordless storm scene during which we see the insomniac Kate Keller (Dianne Wiest) watching the lone tree in the yard collapse. This haunting prologue was first featured in the revival Howard Davies helmed in London eight years ago. However, the Brechtian prologue and the filmic elements which, in addition to the projected scene announcements include newsreel-like footage uderscored by Christopher Schutt and Carolyn Downing's ominous sound design are McBurneyisms.
Whether you're old enough to remember —and prefer—the original 1947 production, the film, or the Williamstown Theatre Festivals fine 50th anniversary presentation ( for which Miller was still on hand) that traveled to the Roundabout in New York, the play itself retains its power, no matter how it's staged. To borrow from my review of that 1999 production: Sure it's a melodrama mounted on a soap box, but it works even after all these years because it's peopled with memorable flesh and blood characters. It grips and convinces because the playwright never loads a scene with an undischarged bullet (i.e.: Joe Keller's "I'm his father and he's my son, and if there's something bigger than that I'll put a bullet in my head").
The fact that this story about the tragic consequences of the lapse from decency of an "ordinary" American businessman like Joe Keller is a World War II period piece doesn't keep it from but still hitting the emotional bulls eye. It is grounded in a time-transcending, universal theme, as summed up towards the end of the play by Chris Keller (Patrick Wilson) to his mother (Dianne Wiest): "Once and for all you must know that there's a universe of people outside, and you're responsible to it." Unfortunately, Chris' eloquent plea still falls on many a deaf ear and the current war's instances of greed-above-all make Joe Keller's knowingly selling defective plane engine parts to the Army during World War II way too timely.
As the current production amply illustrates, All My Sons is also very much a vehicle for fine acting. John Lithgow is a strong Joe Keller. He charms and cajoles, and finally caves in under the weight of the drama's climax.
Patrick Wilson has finally found a role to showcase his power as a dramatic actor. We see him first as a loyal and loving son, a genuinely good man. He wants to marry Ann (Katie Holmes), who was engaged to his missing in action brother (dead to all but his mother). Ann's family history is painfully linked to the Kellers' double tragedy: the loss of a son, and the disgrace over the flawed airplane parts. Watching Chris metamorphose from optimism to bitter wisdom, after Ann's brother George (a superb cameo from Christian Camargo) follows her to the Keller home boiling with rage after becoming aware of the unjusft fate of his father who's "become a little man" because "that's what happens to suckers"
While Dianne Wiest poignantly captures the complex emotions of a woman in deep retreat from the truth that makes the Kellers story a genuine Greek tragedy, the female role that's been getting all the pre-opening buzz is that of Katie Holmes Ann. While Holmes, whose Broadway debut this is, doesn't disgrace herself, and certainly is good too look at, her voice is too shrill and her performance lacking enough nuance for this to prompt shoutouts about the birth of a new Broadway star.
The production is blessed with a fine ensemble to give life to Miller's well developed secondary characters. Becky Ann Baker is particularly good as Sue Bayliss, the wife of a doctor who'd rather do research than practice general medicine.
This highly stylized and filmic staging in many ways suits the play's intensely melodramatic plot, but ultimately it's the inherent power of the play itself that makes it a welcome addition to the season's re-examination of dramas that have lasting substance.
I've includes some highlights from the 60 Year History of All My Sons: at the end of the production notes. For more about Arthur Miller and his work, with links to all productions reviewed at Curtainup see ourArthur Miller Backgrounder
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All My Sons By Arthur Miller Directed by Simon McBurney Cast: John Lithgow (Joe Keller), Dianne Wiest (Kate Keller), Patrick Wilson (Chris Keller), Katie Holmes (Ann Deever), Becky Ann Baker (Sue Bayliss), Christian Camargo (George Deever), Damian Young (Dr. Jim Bayliss)Jordan Gelber (Frank Lubey), Danielle Ferland (Lydia Lubey), Michael D'Addario (Bert). Neighbors: ;Lizbeth MacKay, Christopher Gray Misa,Danielle Skraastad (Neighbors) . Scenic and costume design: Tom Pye Lighting: Paul Anderson Sound Design: Christopher Shutt & Carolyn Downing Projection Design: Finn Ross foo Mesmer Wig Design: Paul Huntley Stage Manager: Andrea "Spook" Testani Running Time: 2 hours and 16 minutes, including intermission Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre 236 West 45th Street 212 239 6200. From 9/18/08; opening 10/16/08; on sale through 1/15/09. Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday — Saturday at 8pm; Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm Tickets for all evening performances and all Saturday and Sunday matinee performances $66.50 and $116.50; Wednesday matinee performances $61.50 and $111.50. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer atOctober 12th press performance Highlights from All My Sons 60-Year History 1947. The play opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre, directed by Elia Kazan. Ed Begley as Joe Keller, Beth Miller as Kate Keller, Arthur Kennedy as Chris Keller and Karl Malden as George Deever. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play but did not win friends amng the political right who attacked it as a smear on the American business community and the work of a Communist (the big dirty word of the time). The play was also denied a license to be performed in the occupied area of Europe by the Civil Affairs Division of the American Military (something of an irony when you consider that this came on the heels of a war fought for freedom (including freedom of speech). 1948. A film adaptation starring Edward G. Robinson as Joe and Burt Lancaster as Chris was released and is still available. 1987. A major Broadway revival with Richard Kiley as Joe Keller, Joyce Ebert as Kate Keller and Jamey Sheridan as Chris won a Tony for Best Revival. 1996-1997. The play was revived at the Williamston Theatre Festival's small second stage, in conjunction with the United States premiere of Miller's new play, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, on the larger Main Stage. The demand for tickets to All My Sons made it clear that it was the one that should have been in the larger theater-- a situation rectified when the production transferred to New York where it played to sell-out audiences and highest acclaim. 2000. Howard Davies, directed a major London revival for the Royal National Theatre |
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