There’s something about watching the dynamics between Joe and
Kate Keller, characters in Arthur Miller’s 1942 Tony Award winning play “All My
Sons” that’s a bit off.
Mark Solz as Joe Keller and Allison Macdonald as Kate Keller |
In 1942 this country was at war. According to an article
brought to Miller’s attention regarding faulty airplane parts, Miller penned
“All My Sons” and put real faces and real consequences on amoral actions all
done for the sake of the all- mighty buck. The domino effect was imminent death
to those brave service men flying plane’s with faulty equipment.
“All my sons” is a drama and a tragedy with humanitarian
fallout that sent shockwaves throughout the world, the Keller family and their small,
incubated neighborhood community.
Joe Keller and his best friend, next-door neighbor and
business partner Steve Deever, owned a manufacturing plant that was government
contracted to manufacture and supply airplane parts to the US Army.
At some point in time, when the aircraft engine cylinders
were in high demand and the partners were under pressure to satisfy their
government contract, defective parts (there were cracks in the cylinder heads)
were among those shipped and placed into war aircraft.
It just so happened that on that fateful day Joe, who had
never been sick a day in his life, or for that matter, missed a days work called in sick. When Steve called Joe at home to see what he should do, Joe
told him to ship the engines, flaws and all.
It was later discovered that because of the defective parts
twenty-seven planes went down killing all aboard. Both men were arrested and
accused of selling faulty parts. Joe managed an appeal claiming that he never
spoke with Steve and that Steve acted on his own.
Allison Macdonald and Mark Solz |
Joe was set free leaving Steve to serve out the jail
sentence. Both Steve’s children, son George and daughter Ann, close neighbors
of the Keller’s, disowned their father.
But things were about to change as we pick up the story three
and a half years later 1947, in Joe’s sprawling backyard (Skyler Hill and a
dozen or so helpers with construction) where both Ann, whom we learn is
planning on marrying Chris, (she was Larry’s fiancée) and George who has broken
his vow of silence with his father (he is now a NY attorney) stand face to face
with the past, present and future.
Chris is now in the family business but carries that guilt
with him always. Kate, Joe’s wife still
believes that Larry is alive and won’t even acknowledge that he might have
died. Every one tiptoes around her so as not to upset the applecart. Kate knows
that if she admits Larry’s death, she is in essence acknowledging Joe’s guilt
in the matter.
Had Miller been alive today, he might have picked up on the
scandal surrounding the automobile industry and the defective work some
companies shoved under the rug and pretending not to notice. Cars with defective airbags were on the road and consumers were dying as a result of the flaws. Years after the fact the Feds finally got around to holding
hearings and recalls.
Miller’s 1947 play ran for only 328 performances but still
managed to win the Tony Award for Best Author and Best Director of a Play. His
criticism of the American Dream, that caused the downfall of Keller and the
destruction of his family lies at the heart of “All My Sons”. It was the main
reason Miller was called before the House Committee on Un American Activities
in the 50’s. He was called out for his left leaning thinking and critique of
greed and mendacity.
What the powers that be failed to notice was the enormous
tragedy that lay just beneath that struggle for the American way of life. Till this
day “All My Sons” still packs a powerful punch.
Mark Anthony Flynn as George Deever and Emily Candia as Ann Deever |
Now playing through Oct. 24th at OnSatge Playhouse
in Chula Vista, director James P. Darvas and his somewhat uneven cast managed
to hush the audience (on the night I arrended) when, Joe, confronted with the powerful and unrelenting
truth of it all from George, Chris and Ann, admits that ‘they were all his
sons’, my eyes welled up and I had all I could do stop my self from bawling.
Aaron Lugo is the goodness and blind innocence of son Chris
who wants to believe with his entire being that his father is innocent of any
wrongdoing. At one end of the truth and reality spectrum, he’s ready to move on
with his life and settle down with Ann in spite of the fact that both parents
object, for different reasons.
Lugo’s Chris grew on me as his character gained a backbone
and showed some genuine heart, genuine remorse with a sincere understanding grasp of his
part in this family dynamic.
Emily Candia is spunky as Ann Deever. It looked like she
stepped right out of a 1940’s (Pam Stampoly-Ericson) bandbox. More than
anything she doesn’t hold back on feelings as she subtly reasons from just
happy to be back in the fold to knowing that that is the farthest thing from
her reality.
Mark Anthony Flynn's George hesitatingly steps into the Keller
backyard, troubled and uncomfortable to be there. Expecting to find his sister
Ann and take her away with him, he does an about face and softens when he sees
Kate, but it’s not enough to convince him that Joe Keller didn’t ruin his
family.
Allison Macdonald plays Kate with all the pent up emotions
only a mother can understand, on the one hand and a concerned wife who knows
her husband all too well on the other.
Mark Solz and Aaron Lugo as Chris Keller |
When she cautions Joe: “Be smart, Joe, be smart” you know how
complicated Ann is and that something is amiss in her oft times demanding
and stubborn way. Back to that dynamic: what Joe did that many years ago, is
always hanging in the balance of every move they make and ever word that speak.
Joe, played with mocking bravado and undaunted reality to
accepting responsibility by Mark Solz runs the gamut of emotion from ‘man on
top of the world’ to finally getting that the boys that were killed by his
decision to let the order go were not just about his sons (‘that he did it for
his sons, to have a better life) but that they were ‘all his sons”. That is the
passion and the truth of Miller.
Aaron Lugo and Emily Candia |
Lesser characters, Dr. Jim Bayliss (Devon Wade) and his
feisty wife Sue (played with too much anger and not enough subtly) by Jess Boles Lohmann, drop in and
out of the Keller’s back yard as the drama of the Keller family percolates.
They bought the Deever’s house and she, aware of the details of that night, evidently feels she has a right to push everyone around.
Dale Goodman’s lighting design is perfect and Pam
Stompoly-Ericon’s hair designs come right out of the 40’s playbook framing the
time.
“All My Sons” is still one of my all time Miller plays. Had
the cast slowed down a bit in their delivery and their diction been more exact,
this would have improved the overall satisfaction of a difficult play to mount.
I will never understand the savagery of war that makes us all
victims and perpetrators at once. Hats off to OnStage and Darvas for
venturing into deep waters where no one comes out a winner and everyone is a
loser.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Oct. 24th
Organization: OnStage Playhouse
Phone: 619-422-7787
Production Type: Drama
Where: 291 Third Ave. Chula Vista, CA
Ticket Prices: $22.00
Web: onstageplayhouse.org
Photo: Daren Scott
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