Playwright: Arthur Miller
At: Actors Workshop Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
Phone: ( 773 ) 728-7529; $20
Through Aug. 28
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
All My Sons may be 58 years old, but it couldn't be more timely. The late Arthur Miller's play of war-profiteering recriminations makes you ponder what effect All My Sons would have if it played in, say, Washington, D.C., right now. Or better yet in the Houston home-town of Halliburton's headquarters.
As Miller's first Broadway success, All My Sons tempered post-World War II optimism by pointing out that a lot of American companies enjoyed an economic windfall off of the bloodshed of war. Miller personalized this dilemma through two Ohio families haunted by accusations that their profit-driven manufacturing company willingly put soldiers' lives in risk by supplying defective fighter plane parts.
At the cozy Actors Workshop Theatre, All My Sons receives a strong production that only suffers an occasional stumble. Michael Colucci does great double duty as director and a performer, anchoring the production with him imposing presence and skilled guidance.
Colucci plays the powerful patriarch Joe Keller, easily capturing his commanding presence as king of his home and business domains. He's joined at the hip with an equally good performance by Jan Ellen Graves as his wife, Kate, who clutches on the hope that her missing-in-action son will one day return home alive.
Jason Daniels also gives a strong performance as Chris, the Keller son and war veteran who wonders if this American life was worth fighting for. Playing the character whom Miller positions as the idealistic and moralistic center, Daniels rightfully comes off as someone you'd want to put your trust in.
In the ingenue love interest role of Ann Deevers, Marisa Sanders redeems her largely wooden performance in the final scene with plenty of tears as the big family secrets are finally revealed.
The rest of the cast is good, though some of their line readings come off as phony or forced ( or way too big in the case of Christine Rosencrans' giggling neighbor Lydia ) . The hyper-intimate playing space also occasionally undermines the believability of the play with tiny details. Upon close inspection, some costumes and hairstyles reveal that they aren't entirely period to the 1940s ( just look away from Christopher O'Brien's name-brand shoes as the perky kid Bert or try to imagine a glamorous Veronica Lake-like 'do on Sanders' Ann ) .
But these are minor quibbles that don't ultimately detract from the dramatic power of Miller's insightful drama. The final scene's confrontations has the ensemble working up an angry storm of emotions that have tremendous impact in these close confines.
The anger Miller drums up in All My Sons also spreads to the audience, especially if they consider the Bush administration's broken early promises of an easy-to-win Iraqi war and the proceeds of oil paying for it all. Although it's set in the 1940s, All My Sons feels extremely relevant today, especially when you think of the human cost of all the brave military service members killed or in harm's way now in the Middle East.