All My Sons by Arthur Miller was premiered in 1947 and became an overnight success after his previous show, The Man Who Had All the Luck failed after disastrous reviews and only four performances. All My Sons revolves around the successful Keller family and Kate Keller’s (Regan Moro) refusal to believe that her son Larry who went MIA in WWII is dead. Her husband, Joe (Benjamin David Reitemeier) and son Chris (Ryan Rosenheim) have accepted that Larry will never come home but have played along with her interpretation of reality in order to keep the peace. However, Chris has invited their former neighbor and Larry’s former girlfriend Annie (Madeline Rouverol) to the Keller family home in order to propose to his long time pen pal and friend. Yet, it is not just Annie and Larry’s past relationship that stands in his way, Annie’s father once was Joe’s business partner – a failed partnership which ended with defective parts being sent to US Army, 21 pilots dead, Annie’s father in jail and Joe surrounded by murderous suspicion.
As a special production for the 100th Birthday of Arthur Miller and 100th anniversary of the School of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan, this production was designed to impress alumni and the community at large – a feat which it easily accomplished. Since the Arthur Miller Theatre has a thrust stage, I have never seen a traditional curtain used in this venue causing the set to be immediately exposed the second you walk into the theater. This provides the audience with a tremendous amount of time to view the set and cast judgments about each piece present on the stage, presenting a huge amount of pressure on the Scenic Designer to create the “perfect” set. Caleb Levengood (’03) did a tremendous job with set. The stage was framed by white lattice woodwork which was filled with items that appeared to be from Larry’s childhood. While the actors never interacted with any of these objects or acknowledge their existence, they framed the story as a constant reminder that while Larry himself might not be present, his absence was always something to be noted. On the stage itself, a porch jetting out from the façade of an incomplete house subtly suggested that there are parts missing from more than just the house.
The principle actors did a tremendous job with creating believable and complex characters on stage, while the featured actors fulfilled their purpose as plot devices but were otherwise not of note. Regan Moro as Kate Ketter was especially powerful in her presentation of a woman trapped in a world of delusion but desperately clinging to reality. The wringing of her hands was never overdone, she was not the stereotype of a woman who has lost or the false two dimensional character you too often see but rather a powerful, commanding presence determined to hide the disintegration of her world from those closest to her.
Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is not an uplifting piece but much like Death of a Salesmen Miller forces the audience to look at themselves before casting judgment on the choices of his characters. Here he questions the audience: how much would you compromise?
