Phil Astle as Joe Keller and Alison Cahill as his
troubled wife Kate. Picture: Emily White
All My Sons
Highbury Theatre Centre
*****
This is the play that launched Arthur
Miller as a giant of 20th century theatre, and more than 70 years on it
is still a powerful piece of beautifully crafted drama producing one of
Highbury’s best performances for some time.
Miller’s second play, The Man Who Had All The
Luck, (his first No Villain was written while at
university) had bombed on Broadway, closing after four performances and
All My Sons was make or break time for Miller.
It was based on a story in an Ohio newspaper
about how an Ohio manufacturer and Army inspectors had conspired to
supply faulty aircraft engines to the military, the scenario which
became the foundation stone for Miller’s damning account of the American
Dream.
The play is set in August 1946 in the back yard
of Joe Keller’s home somewhere in the Midwest. Joe (Phil Astle) is a
self-made, wealthy man, made even wealthier by the war contracts for
engines for P40 fighters awarded to his company.
With son Chris, (Alex Westwood) safely back from
the war and hopefully going to take over the business one day, Joe
should be content and pleased with life – except there is a nervous
energy about him, a quick temper, raised voices, bluster, even anger,
defensive even when not being attacked, even his jokes about his lack of
education and sophistication are barbed and self-protective.
Chris was a platoon commander in the war and has
returned dismayed that men had fought and died and nothing has changed.
The loss of most of his platoon who died for each other, has had a
profound and lasting effect.
His mother Kate (Alison Cahill) is a sad case.
Her son Larry, a WWII pilot went missing in action in the South China
Seas three and a half years ago and she is the only person who thinks he
is still alive.
Well, not quite, there is always Frank (Dan
Holyhead) next door, who is into astrology in a big way and is convinced
Larry can’t be dead because the day he went missing was his favourable
day, and in the world of astrology you can’t die on such a day.
His wife, Lydia (Amy White) is pretty and a
breath of fresh air, the only one you can say that about. She has no
apparent hang-ups and is just a happy, normal, attractive housewife,
with three children and a smile to brighten the gathering clouds.
Neighbours on the other side are the rather
gloomy Dr Jim Bayliss (Sean Mulkeen) and his resentful wife Sue (Eliza
Harris). He seems to see his patients as an inconvenience, not really
ill, merely a nuisance while Sue sees them more as income.
Jim would rather become a medical researcher –
saving the world - while Sue blames Chris, idealistic Chris, for
fuelling the idea, the idea being a job which would pay much less than
his current doctor’s income. She also resents the way the Kellers seem
to get away with everything – which is a glimpse of the elephant in the
room – or at least the Keller’s back yard.
Jim and Sue had bought the house of Joe’s
long-time partner Steve, a partner who had been jailed for knowingly
supplying defective cylinder heads for Curtis P40 fighters; 21 pilots
had died as a result.
Joe had been exonerated – or, as many people
thought, had got away with it, having claimed to have been off with flu
on the day the cylinder heads were shipped out, claiming he knew nothing
about it.
Steve’s daughter Ann (Kimberley Marlow) had been
Larry’s girl, but had accepted his death and she had arrived for a visit
at the invitation of Chris. He wanted to marry her but to his mother Ann
was still Larry’s girl and Larry was still coming home. She carried with
her a secret that would destroy that belief . . . and with it the
family.
Then there is Steve’s son George (James Cutajar).
He and Lydia were an item before the war. Now he is a hot-shot New York
lawyer. Both George and Ann had disowned their father, believing him,
and him alone, guilty . . . except George has just been to see his
father in jail for the first time and arrives at the Keller’s house to
take Ann away from the Keller family, to stop her marrying Chris,
someone who was his best friend before the war.
His return explodes everything that had been
simmering under the surface for so long in a dramatic climax as
everything comes to a head with Chris feeling it the most, declaring in
anguish: "I know you're no worse than other men, but I thought you were
better. I never saw you as a man ... I saw you as my father."
Miller uses clever devices to strengthen the
plot. We open with a tree planted in Larry’s memory which has blown down
during the night in the same month as Larry’s birthday and the same
night that Ann is staying in his room – all signs to the susceptible
Kate.
Then there is Bert (Ben Nicholson) a little lad
who comes to the Keller’s house to play, believing Joe is a big
detective and has made him a policeman. He also believes Joe has a jail
in his basement.
His first appearance seems silly, pointless,
taking the plot nowhere.
Later we realise the significance of the origins
of the game with Bert, and his second appearance is the catalyst for an
outburst by Kate when the jail, or the lack of it, has a resonance far
beyond the silly game with a naive child.
Ian Appleby direction is beautifully paced and
nuanced with the characters, apart from Lydia of course, all appearing
to be never quite at ease.
The set by Malcolm Robertshaw is simple and
effective with a white painted clapboard rear of the house and a visible
window so the couple of times when phone calls are featured the person
on the phone can be seen and heard.
The cast are universally excellent, Astle gives
Joe a sort of unlikeable, hail fellow quality, someone you could never
quite trust while Alison’s Kate is normal one minute, a mother in
dangerous denial the next; Kimberley’s Ann is sensible and pragmatic
seeing the world as it is not as Kate wants it to be, while Alex’s Chris
is still haunted by ghosts from the past, his brother but most of all
the men who died under his command. His belief in his father being more
of a crutch than a rock to hold on to. The final scenes are painful to
watch as a family is torn apart by guilt, shame, anger and loss.
Sean’s Jim is a disaffected doctor and we are
never quite sure if his attitude to his marriage is jokey or serious,
while Sue is jolly and friendly but with sharp edges and a simmering
loathing of the Kellers.
James’ George comes over as a man angry and
confused, on the one hand betrayed, on the other seeing a past life when
all was well and he was happy.
Dan’s Frank seems normal even when he enters the
world of astrology, while Amy’s Lydia breezes along as if nothing has
happened.
For any aspiring playwrights this is an example
from a master. No character is superfluous, all play a part. The plot
opens with a blank canvas and bit by bit pieces are added building the
story and the tension to a final climax. Beautifully written, acted and
directed and well worth seeing. To 06-07-19.
Roger Clarke
25-06-19
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