James
Karas
|
Joe
Keller
Kate
Keller
Chris
Keller
Ann
Deever
George
Deever
Dr.
Jim Bayliss
Sue
Bayliss
Frank
Lubey
Lydia
Lubey
|
Joseph Ziegler
Lucy Peacock
Tim Campbell
Sarah Afful
Michael Blake
E.B. Smith
Lanise Antoine Shelley
Rodrigo
Beilfuss
Jessica
B. Hill
|
Director
Martha Henry, Set Designer Douglas Paraschuk, Costumes Designer Dana Osborne, Lighting Designer Louise Guinard, Sound Designer Todd Charlton, Fight Director John Stead
Continues at
the Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, England.
*** (out of
five)
The timing for
the Stratford Festival’s production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons could not be
more apposite even if it was unintentional. In the midst of an ugly
presidential race, a large number of Americans are supporting Donal Trump
because he is a businessman as if that were a virtue far above anything that
experienced politicians can offer. Anyone that has amassed a personal fortune
worth billions of dollars and promises to make America great again must be good
for the country.
All My Sons looks at
business, profits, wealth, morality and corruption in 1946 America and,
ironically, in Ohio where the celebration of Trump’s success in business was
rewarded with his nomination for the presidency of the United States a couple
of weeks ago.
Joseph Ziegler
as Joe Keller in All My Sons. Photography by David Hou.
Joe Keller is an
American success story. He owns a factory that manufactures airplane parts for
the American Air Force during World War II. His factory ships some defective
cylinders that cause the death of 21 pilots. Joe’s partner is convicted and
jailed. Joe gets off scot-free because he was not at work on the day the
cylinders were made and shipped. That is the basic plot on which this morality
tale is built.
Martha Henry
directs a fine production of this American classic with a few problems in the
process. Ziegler’s Joe Keller is successful but he clearly has something
weighing on him. We see that weight get heavier as the truth creeps out and his
love of family, excuses and bombast can no longer sustain him. We see his
tragedy evolve slowly and inexorably in a superb performance by Ziegler.
Joe’s wife Kate
is the most interesting, complex and sympathetic character in the play. Her son
Larry was reported missing in the war and she cannot accept that fact. She even
asks her neighbour Frank, an amateur astrologer, to check her son’s stars to
see if the day of his death was a lucky day for him. Kate knows a great deal
more than she reveals and we know that she knows as well. She has built a wall
made of lies, self-delusion and wishful thinking that holds the audience riveted
to her emotional state and her fate. Lucy Peacock has a very distinctive voice
that has a singular tinge and I find it highly effective in most of her roles
but it struck me as ineffective at certain moments. I cannot explain why.
Lucy Peacock as Kate Keller in All My Sons. Photography by David
Hou.
Their son Chris
is in love with his late brother’s girlfriend and he has invited her over to
the Keller house in order to ask her to marry him. She is in love with him as
well. Chris is a sensitive young man with a sense of morality and
responsibility. He will be brought to face his father’s true character. Tim
Campbell is miscast for the role. He looks like a football player and has a
voice that promises a touchdown in the next quarter. He does get quite dramatic
when he confronts his father and his own morality but overall he is in the
wrong role.
Sarah Afful as
Ann, the daughter of Joe’s partner who went to jail for the defective
cylinders, is a woman in love who does not want to see or confront the truth
about her father’s fate. Michael Blake as her brother George is full of fire
and anger as he returns to his old neighbourhood where he knew happiness. He
also knows the truth.
Miller provides
neighbours in Dr Bayliss and his wife Sue as well as Frank and Lydia who recall
the wonderful community of the past before the war, greed and criminality
ruined it.
The play is
performed in the Tom Patterson Theatre which is turned literally into a
theatre-in-the-round with seats on all sides. The stage resembles the backyard
of a well-to-do man.
Henry adds a
scene at the beginning where a sleepless Kate is in the yard and witnesses the
storm and lightning that fells the tree that was planted in memory of her dead
son.
The play builds
to the dramatic and tragic climax reasonably well but one wishes there was more
utter shock than drama.
________
All My Sons by
Arthur Miller continues in repertory at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford,
Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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