All My Sons
by Arthur Miller
In
1945 Arthur Miller was running out of patience. His first play had lasted just
4 days and if he was to make his living as a writer, he needed a success. He
was also, clearly, a very angry man indeed, like many of the left in the US, he
was witnessing the collapse of an American society which between the Depression
the War had pulled together in an almost socialistic way. His response was to
write his first great hit, a powerful play which pulls no punches and has lost
none of its relevance in the past 60 years.
All My Sons opens in easy-going manner. The action takes place in the yard of an all-American family. Joe is so friendly, so easy going while Kate is a universal mother, believing a good meal will sort out all the world’s problems. And their son Chris is a fiercely good person, a moral and deeply good man. The only threat to this idyllic existence seems to be the missing son, Larry. He has been missing for three years now, his place going missing in the far east during the war, and Kate is determined that he is still alive. This tension is exacerbated when Ann, Larry’s sweetheart arrives with the intention of announcing her marriage to Chris, something Kate will never, can never accept.
But there are other tensions. Joe and Ann’s father used to run a company together in the war, and Ann’s father is in prison for allowing defect products to be shipped. The defects cost 21 US air pilots their lives. The avuncular, friendly ever-forgiving Joe has been exonerated of any involvement. But tongues wag.
There is little need to go on; the tension, once it mounts, rises exponentially, and the family is irrevocably shattered by Joe’s dishonestly and hypocrisy. It does not end well.
I saw this production about 8 years ago at the National, and I had forgotten how, just when you think the tragedy has run its course there is a final, terrible unanswerable twist. It leaves you feeling as shattered as is this all too believable family. We were all utterly sucked into the tragedy, lost to time and reality.
This production, at the Apollo Shaftesbury Avenue features David Suchet and Zoe Wanamker as Joe and Kate. They are tremendous. Entirely believable as the centre of a happy family they both play their mental and physical collapse with remarkable skill. Wanamaker is physically diminished as the truth hits her, and Suchet dies before us as the inevitable consequences of his dishonesty destroys him. Chris and Ann (Stephen Campbell Moore and Jemima Rooper) are almost as good, and even the overly-jolly cast of neighbours don’t put a foot wrong. The set is exquisite, a garden of eden worthy of the snake-like deceptions.
Miller is, for me, one of the great 20th century playwrights, and many of his themes are here. Most notably, the inevitable consequences of betrayal (starkly portrayed in View from the Bridge) and public duplicity. This is a stunning production and the starring performances make it worth the exorbitant ticket prices. Catch it if you can.