SYNOPSIS
All My Sons, by Arthur Miller, is a tragic Post-World War II story about the Kellers, a seemingly “All American” family. But this idealistic picture has some serious flaws.  Secrets and rumors race about the true story behind the accusation held against Joe Keller and his business partner Steve Deever for shipping faulty parts to the U.S. military.  Joe’s name is cleared while Steve is sent to jail, and the Kellers continue to lead a seemingly normal life. However they are emotionally plagued by the loss of their son Larry, a pilot in the war who has been missing for several years. Latent tensions rise to the surface when the two families are reunited through the love of Steve’s daughter Anne and Joe’s son Chris.  

Recommended for high school and adult audiences.

BEHIND THE SCENES
Click here to see photos from the production.

Click here to view Costume Renderings and the Set Model. 

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PRODUCTION HISTORY
All My Sons premiered at the Coronet Theatre in New York on January 29, 1947. After the dismal failure of his first play, The Man Who Had All The Luck, Miller was quoted as saying that if this play failed to reach an audience, he would “find some other line of work.” Luckily, the play did extremely well, running for 328 performances and winning both the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the 1947 Tony Award for Best Authored Play. The play was adapted into a film in 1948 and again in 1986, the latter of the two followed the original work more closely. A limited Broadway revival began in October 2008 and ran through January 2009 starring John Lithgow as Joe Keller and Katie Holmes as Ann Deever.

This tragic tale is based on an Ohio newspaper article telling the true story about a woman who informed on her father for selling faulty parts to the U.S. military during World War II. In addition to the inspiration found in this article, Miller takes the idea of two partners in business where one is forced to take moral and legal responsibility for the other from the Henrik Ibsen play The Wild Duck. The structure of the play is also heavily influenced by Greek tragedies.

Miller mirrors the notion that idealism is the source of all problems in each character’s life. Due to the overwhelming anti-communist hysteria that gripped the country during the 1950s, this criticism of the beloved American Dream did not go unnoticed, and Miller was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

This is the third of Miller’s major plays produced by Artists Rep.  The Crucible opened the 2001/02 season and Death of A Salesman was part of the 2004/05 season.                                                   

PLAYWRIGHT
For the past sixty years, Arthur Miller has dedicated himself to examining the moral plight of the white American working class. Miller has created numerous characters that wrestle with power conflicts, personal and social responsibility, the repercussions of past actions, and the desperation of guilt and hope. Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge and All My Sons are considered Miller’s most notable works. Other works include The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Misfits, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The Price, The American Clock, Broken Glass, Mr. Peters' Connections, The Ride Down Mount Morgan and The Last Yankee and Timebends.

COMMENTS FROM ARTHUR MILLER
"The success of a play, especially one's first success, is somewhat like pushing against a door which is suddenly opened from the other side. One may fall on one's face or not, but certainly a new room is opened that was always securely shut until then. For myself, the experience was invigorating. It made it possible to dream of daring more and risking more. The audience sat in silence before the unwinding of All My Sons and gasped when they should have, and I tasted that power which is reserved, I imagine, for playwrights, which is to know that by one's invention a mass of strangers has been publicly transfixed."

"I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity."

Excerpts were taken from Introduction to the Collected Plays, published in The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller (Da Capo Press, New York, 1996).

PRODUCTION SPONSORS

Ronni Lacroute

PRESENTING SEASON SPONSOR: 

 

"...a strong revival of a powerful play about the intersection of the American way and the American tragedy." - The Oregonian.  Read the full review.

“The whole production was powerful. I brought my grandson, first year college student and it knocked our socks off! The acting and directing was wonderful. I thought the Mother and George and Chris were especially good--they were all good. There was a palpable hush from the audience at the end. We left the theatre moved and changed.” – Audience Member

“Clean and easy to understand. Quick moving.  Well acted.” – Audience Member

 “I was totally blown away by the actors' performances in this play. Michael Fisher-Welsh and Mindi Logan are amazing, and all of the actors were totally convincing in their parts. The time flew by. The story is riveting and deeply moving, and the ending left me with chills.” – Audience Member

“It was a powerful production with extraordinary performances by each and every member of the cast.” – Audience Member

 “The play is so rich, with many layers of emotional and intellectual drama, and the acting was superb.” – Audience Member

“An emotionally intense and powerful production, a play that magnifies and reflects conflicts that we all have to address in our lives.” – Audience Member

"Back when All My Sons premiered...the play spoke to a nation emerging from war and eyeing prosperity while still shaking off the memory of economic depression.  The country is now heading more or less in the reverse direction...six decades later, it's almost bizarre that the play's connection to the reality of the times remains so strong."  - Variety (2008)

“In any production of “All My Sons” a certain unease will be evident from the beginning. But the play’s force lies in Miller’s portrayal of how its characters come to identify and reckon with the sources of this unease, as what initially appears as a sunny small-town idyll turns dark and stormy.”—New York Times (2008).

“As a play with a social conscience and an unswerving moral commitment, All My Sons is as relevant today as it was when it was first produced in 1947.”  - New York Times (1986)

Read the Oregonian's Preview Article