GF+All+My+Sons

This interpretation of Arthur Miller's critically acclaimed play, "All My Sons" was very different from any of the other plays I had seen this semester. This feeling was mostly due to the enlarged budget for the play and the larger stage. Both "The 39 Steps" and "Life Is a Dream" were shown in the Cellar Theatre which seated a small audience and did not use a large amount of props. Overall, I really enjoyed Paolino's adaptation of "All My Sons" and wished that it had gotten more attention from the UGA community.

Before I talk about the plot or acting, I think that it is important that I talk about the set (designed by Richard Dunham) for the play, because of its influence on my overall experience. The set was focused around the stylization of the house of the main characters. The backdrop behind the house mimics the changes in the sky, with lovely blue and peachy hues. In the house, there are about a dozen chairs in which all of the characters who are not acting in the foreground are present. They occasionally get up and walk off stage with a cue, but this is not distracting. The hanging windows are very stylized. They are like hanging rectangles. This stylization allows the audience to see in the house and it keeps the stage and space from being crowded, despite having many people and props on the stage at a time. There is a main set of steps leading from in the house to the front of the stage, where almost all of the action occurs. This part of the stage seems to slope forward towards the audience, which gives the illusion of depth. On the left side of the stage (as if in the audience), there is a small table that the family eats and sits down at. On the right side of the stage, there is a bench and a broken tree (planted in memory of the missing brother) made out of what appears to be bent metal tubing. I thought that the design of the set perfectly mirrored the dynamics of the play and the relationships between characters. Because the audience can see into the house, but can't see the individual rooms, the house represents escape for the father and what he has done, while letting his business partner take the blame for years. The mother also goes into the house for painkillers. She is trying to escape from the reality that one of her sons is really dead and will never return. Most of the set is made out of wood or is made to look like wood. One of the only things that is not made out of wood is the tree (mentioned earlier), which is quite different from reality. I'm not sure why the tree was made to look metallic but my interpretation was that it was one of the only things that didn't change. The tree changed physically but the memory of Larry stays. Near the end, everything has been revealed about Joe Keller's involvement in selling faulty plane parts for the war, changing the perspective of almost every character involved yet Larry's memory remains, shown by the tree that won't decay. I felt even this was a bit "out there" but I'm not certain why the tree was not a real tree, considering that this play is so realistic.

Onto the acting. Overall, the acting in this play was much better than in any of the others I have seen this semester, mostly because many of the actors in the main roles were more experienced. One example of this was the actor who played Joe Keller (Brian Reddy) had been on many shows like Law & Order SVU so he was experienced and a good actor. His character was a very likable person, even when the audience finds out about him selling faulty plane parts and making his business partner take the fall and spend years in jail. His emotions are so sincere, whether joking around or arguing with his son Chris at the end of the play. His wife, Kate, was also an interesting character. She is distraught waiting on her son Larry, who has been missing for a few years since being at war. She is obsessed with the fact that he is still alive. Her character is that of an old mother, who constantly harasses Ann Deever about if she is waiting for Larry, who was once her love interest, to come home, when she is actually going to marry Chris. Her accent is interesting and I think it adds to her worrisome character.The actor Chris Ketter was good overall, but I felt like he was slightly weak at the beginning of the play. He seemed uncomfortable and slightly strained. It did provide an interesting contrast at the end of the play when he and his father get into a very heated argument when he finds out that his father was the one who said to ship the fractured plane parts out, not Ann's father. I wished that he had shown some of this intensity at the beginning of the play, which would have made his character stronger. Ann, his love interest, was one of the stronger younger characters. She was serious and her voice projected very well. I liked when she was talking to herself in a monologue fashion, she stood near the sides of the stage and had a light shine on her from the sides. This light created a dramatic silhouette against the walls. I also liked her costume. She is introduced wearing a dark emerald dress which looks very classy. Her dress is different from all of the other women in the play who look less sophisticated than Ann. This is to show how she has grown up far away from her hometown in the city.

One of the only issues I had with the play was the rhythm of it. At times, the pace increased as if a rising action only to suddenly fall again, continuing at a slow pace. One example of this was when George Deever (Ann's brother) who is now a lawyer shows up at the Keller's home to incriminate Joe Keller and prove his father's innocence. Once the arguments get heated, suddenly Joe starts to win over George with memories from home. This is all fine and dandy, but half of the play had led up to the moment when George the lawyer was coming back to his hometown after so many years just after he had visited his father in jail. Joe is incredibly nervous about George coming back, showing that he was guilty.But now, the law student just gives up on what he came there for. This transition from rising action to falling action was just confusing to me. It is difficult to describe. This was not to say that I did not like George as an actor. He did very well considering that he was being introduced to the audience so late in the play and had to make up for that.

The end of the play was very dramatic, with Joe going offstage to shoot himself. The gunshot definitely surprised me. I think it was more dramatic to have this action offstage than in front of the audience. Overall, this play was definitely my favorite this semester. Even so, this play had its ups and downs, mostly in the form of inconsistent acting, especially in some of the less experienced actors. The set was beautiful and the stylized house fit even with the highly realistic play. The lighting used was great and the sound of an old radio playing at transitions really helped set the mood and keep the audience interested.