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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.
Howard Davies, who directed All My Sons at the National ten years ago, has recreated his production at the West End's Apollo Theatre, with a new cast led by David Suchet and Zoe Wannamaker as married couple Joe and Kate Keller.
Arthur Miller’s 1947 play is the story of Joe Keller, a man who has sacrificed his honour to maintain his family's prosperity. His wife has managed to hide her knowledge of Joe's previous crimes, but things come to a head when their son decides to marry the former fiancée of his lost brother. Miller is believed to have based the play around a true story from World War Two, when a manufacturer knowingly allowed defective tank parts to be shipped out.
Michael Coveney in Whatsonstage.com (five stars) – “David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker are the perfect pairing as Joe and Kate Keller … Davies establishes a tragic tone with an invented prologue of the wind howling through William Dudley’s densely forested garden … Suchet brings much more weight, as well as shiftiness, to the role, and the evening winds up with a tension that’s almost unbearable ... The crux of it all is the outstanding performance of Stephen Campbell Moore as the second son … and he’s brilliantly partnered by Jemima Rooper as the hopeful but finally devastated fiancée. Jerusalem was always going to be a hard act to follow on the Apollo stage, but the West End has now done Arthur Miller much more than proud: this is a truly magnificent revival.”
Michael Billington in the Guradian (five stars) – “Not only is the acting tremendous and every visual detail precise … But the power of the production lies in the stripping away of protective illusion. David Suchet's superb Joe is a man who conceals his guilt under a backyard bonhomie … But, confronted by the truth of his past, Suchet shrivels before our eyes. Zoe Wanamaker is no less astonishing as Joe's wife … Wanamaker brilliantly allows you to glimpse the vehemence that underlies the bursts of suburban gaiety and charm … William Dudley's two-storied set is immaculate in its domestic detail; and when the surrounding trees shiver and tremble at the start, it is as if All My Sons picks up where the previous and equally impressive occupant of this theatre, Jerusalem, left off.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (five stars) – “This is a play of extraordinary power and emotional depth, and when it is performed as wonderfully as it is here … It is also profoundly moving. Last night I even spotted a hardened fellow critic weeping. Davies creates an atmosphere of ominous unease right from the start … The great David Suchet has never been better than he is here … His gathering desperation and guilt is at times almost too painful to watch. [Zoë Wanamaker] is also outstanding as his wife … and there is terrific support from Stephen Campbell Moore as the honourable surviving son and Jemima Rooper as the girlfriend … This is a stunning production of a modern classic and one that those who see it will never forget.”
Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “You won't find better performances in the West End right now than those of David Suchet and[ Zoë Wanamaker] in Howard Davies's meaty, satisfying production … Davies's production has a rousing sense of scale and is studded with telling details … There's excellent work from Stephen Campbell Moore as Joe's affectionate, attentive son Chris, and from Jemima Rooper, warm and twinkly but soulful as Ann … Wanamaker is husky, poised and poignant, a model of tortured seriousness. It's Suchet, though, who dominates … Every nuance of his performance feels perfectly weighted …All My Sons is a heavyweight drama … It’s not exactly summer blockbuster material, but it is as potent a production of Miller's work as one could hope to see.”
Neil Norman in the Express (three stars) – “Howard Davies's handsome if sedate production has great clarity … but it lacks the degree of emotion that should bring an audience crashing to the ground with each revelation. Suchet is too cultivated a man, exuding intelligence when he should smell of low cunning … Wanamaker underplays Kate's buried grief and fierce denial until the very end … The third act is genuinely moving and Suchet's silent reading of the fateful missive is a magnificent piece of wordless acting … but the heart of the production is kept pumping by Stephen Campbell Moore, whose performance as the Kellers' surviving son Chris is right on the button … This is a polite, well-merited revival that needs just a little more blood on its hands.”
Howard Davies’ National Theatre revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons ten years ago was pretty good, but he goes one better at the Apollo, where David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker are the perfect pairing as Joe and Kate Keller, an all-American, late middle-aged couple living with the ghosts of the Second World War in their own back yard.
It was once said that “cover-up” is the great theme of American drama, and Miller’s 1947 play, which established his reputation and is now hailed by some – David Mamet, for instance – as his true masterpiece, contains the mother of all cover-ups. Joe was an ambitious manufacturer of household and industrial goods in the war – including a batch of faulty cylinder heads that caused the death of 21 pilots. Did he know about the fault before shipment?
One of the war dead is his own son but, of course, they are all his sons really. Joe’s business partner took the rap and is still serving a prison sentence, while the partner’s daughter, Ann Deever, is about to marry Joe’s second son, Chris. But when Ann’s lawyer brother turns up with yet more damning evidence, a blot of shame spreads unstoppably through the household.
The anxiety that all of our families shared during the last war, and some still do today, has never been better expressed. Wanamaker, her long face taut as a mask, her voice cracked with pent-up emotion, simply cannot countenance the fact that Larry has gone. And, as in the NT Cottesloe, Davies establishes a tragic tone with an invented prologue of the wind howling through William Dudley’s densely forested garden.
The Cottesloe version was a traverse production, and Julie Walters inflected Kate’s grief through her own smart brand of sly humour. There’s no such equivocation with Wanamaker, who’s wringing our withers before she even opens her mouth. Joe on that occasion was the late James Hazeldine and he was, in the best sense, an ordinary Joe, the small businessman making good in the new market place of pressure cookers and washing machines.
Suchet brings much more weight, as well as shiftiness, to the role, and the evening winds up with a tension that’s almost unbearable. For this really is the shattering of the American dream. The crux of it all is the outstanding performance of Stephen Campbell Moore as the second son, who becomes the transparent conscience of the play, and he’s brilliantly partnered by Jemima Rooper as the hopeful but finally devastated fiancée.
Jerusalem was always going to be a hard act to follow on the Apollo stage, but the West End has now done Arthur Miller much more than proud: this is a truly magnificent revival.
I entirely agree with everything that has been written and said about this production and the incredible performances by Wanamaker and Suchet. But, a word of warning to anyone still planning to see it: don't sit in the upper circle, as you won't be able to see more than about half the action. It is outrageous that the Apollo can get away with charging £42.50 for a seat with a restricted view, which they don't tell you about when you book. Moan over - go and see the play if you can afford to. - sc
16 Sep 10
Stunning. A brilliant script perfectly crafted. Performances to match with David Suchet being simply breath-taking. - Carrie Cohen
29 Jul 10
Absolutely brilliant--everyone acted so well and naturally that it felt like I was watching a real drama and not a staged one.David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker were as great as ever and a very good supporting cast specially Jemima Rooper and Stephen Campbell Moore---Great theatre all round - Joe Spiteri
27 Jul 10
The facade of the Apollo Theatre is plastered with 5 star reviews for All My Sons but during the first act it was difficult to see why. The acting was of a remarkably high standard but Arthur Miller had given us no more than workmanlike exposition of suppressed family guilt and betrayal. It's after the interval that sparks really fly and the build up to David Suchet's realisation of the full consequences of his actions is almost physical. I was slightly confused about the motivation of Kate Keller, longing for her son to return from the dead but still protecting and grieving for her husband even when confronted with his guilt and responsibility. Despite this, Zoe Wannamaker is extraordinary in those closing harrowing moments and there is exceptional support from Stephen Campbell Moore as the principled surviving son whose loss of comrades during the war makes him fully aware of his father's complicity. - David Baxter
22 Jul 10
Miller takes your emotions and morals, screws them up and tramples them into the ground. This only works with truly gifted actors and this is one of those rare plays where everything fits together. From Suchet visibly shrinking in stature to Wanamaker's incredible portrayal of pain and grief, it is truly gut-wrenching. The silence at the end before the standing ovation (on a Tuesday) spoke volumes. As did the muted conversation and discrete wiping of eyes as we filed out. Not to be missed. - Annie
14 Jul 10
My second Arthur Miller revival of the year proves to be much more than the Suchet-Wanamaker show, though they are both at the height of their powers and give terrific performances. The first star is Bill Dudley’s extraordinary set – a life-size American suburban house and garden surrounded by giant trees have taken over from Jerusalem’s English wood with Airstream caravan! Similar (the same?) as the National ten years ago, from the third row of the stalls you felt like you were peering over the fence into a neighbour’s garden. The rest of the cast is excellent indeed, including Stephen Campbell Moore’s principled son, Jemima Rooper’s tortured soul and an angry David Lapaine. Director Howard Davies has indeed assembled a uniformly excellent cast for this revival. The main star, of course, is Millers’ play – a masterpiece of the 20th century which could just as easily be about contemporary families torn apart by profiteering out of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. It has so much humanity and so much depth. It’s great to see ‘House Full’ signs on a Monday for a modern classic, and it proved to be a thrilling evening in the theatre. - Gareth James
07 Jul 10
I agree with ASH...a bit overblown, with some quite ploddy performances in the smaller parts (so to speak). - Coral
28 Jun 10
This is one of the best plays I've seen. All the three leads are fantastic. The 2nd Act was so powerful that it took my breath away. Go see the play! - basil
14 Jun 10
Here I go (about to be shouted down) - I thought this was very disappointing considering its 'classic' nature.
very predictable. - Ash
01 Jun 10
This is simply the best play on in London at the moment. Suchet and Wanamaker have never been better but really every single cast member is spot on. I saw Howard Davies' traverse staging at the NT and didn't think it would be as powerful in the pros arch. How wrong I was. I attended a (packed) midweek matinee and you could have heard a pin drop. Plus a standing ovation -so rare at a straight play.This is thrilling, essential theatre and I'm sure Arthur Miller would be proud. Absolutely unmissable. - ajh
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