All My Sons

Synopsis

Three years since the report of his disappearance in action, the Kellers are still waiting, hoping against hope for news of their son's return. Three years of waiting, and their younger son struggles to break the news to his mother and father that he is in love with the girl his brother left behind. Three lives are on hold, until they can finally accept that Laurie may never return. Events come to a head one evening, when Annie returns to her home town and forces the Keller family to confront their hidden past, their own culpability and the awful part they may have played in their son's demise. Powerful, passionate and frighteningly relevant, All My Sons, brought Arthur Miller his first major success as a playwright. This moving, tragic drama is a compelling tale of the ideological conflict between father and son, a merciless exposure of wartime profiteering and the American Dream.

Our Review:

3 October 2009

David Thacker’s debut production since taking over the helm of the Bolton venue is, in programming terms at least, something of a predictable choice. Noted for his numerous collaborations with Miller himself, Thacker is world-renowned for this sort of thing. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he’s made Miller’s 1947 family saga his inaugural production. 

 It’s 1946, and all-American son Chris Keller (Oscar Pearce) has brought his girlfriend Ann Deever (Vanessa Kirby) to the family home for the weekend. His parents, Joe (George Irving) and Kate (Margot Leicester), still mourning the disappearance of their other son, Larry, during the war, are concerned, as Ann was originally Larry’s sweetheart. The neighbourhood seems friendly and well-to-do, but the peaceful Summer evening is about to be shattered by a phone call.

Indisputably the 20th century’s greatest playwright, Miller’s wo...

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Latest User Review

John Howarth - 16 October 2009:

I have been a visitor to The Octagon since it opened in 1967. There have been many quality productions over the years but ALL MY SONS ranks as one of the finest productions I have seen there in a long time....

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