LAAllMySons

Laura Alexander THEA 2100 Richmond Performance Critique 3 //All My Sons// Depicting the tragedies of a post-World War II family, Arthur Miller’s //All My Sons// explores the relationships between a son and his adored father who dedicated himself to his business, which ultimately costs him his son Larry as well his twenty-one of his “other sons.” In a fantastic example of realism, the University of Georgia’s production of //All My Sons// successfully captures the emotional dynamic of this American family with devastating secrets. Graced with the talented presence of the experienced Broadway actor Brian Reddy, this production invoked strong reactions from the audience due to its heavy themes and extremely convincing acting. With an impressive and creative set design and an incredibly talented cast, UGA’s production of //All My Sons// became the most entertaining and provocative school production I have had the pleasure to see so far.

While the set obviously required a great amount of effort and conceptualizing to create, it still managed the surprisingly difficult task of simplicity. With a stage that representing a lawn in front of a house and that jutted out into the audience at a slightly sloping angle. This allowed for a greater connection between the audience and the characters, for it extended enough so as to make the audience members feel as if they were watching the play from the street in front of the lawn, which in effect made the emotion and action feel all the more real. Additionally, the stage was supported by metallic cylinders just as the porch of the house, and also contained multiple other metallic props and set pieces. Another significant portion of the set includes the memorial for the lost son of Joe Keller, a fallen tree made out of metal pipes. This often served as a focal point for both the audience and the dialogue between the characters. Additional metallic props included the pitcher and cup set on the table in the yard as well as a pot, all of which in conjunction with the other metallic features of the set served creatively as symbols for industry, business, and money. Joe Keller knowingly chose these over the safety of American soldiers and blamed it on his partner, all for the sake of the American Dream, or his dream for success and to leave something substantial for his remaining son.

The manner in which the set designer displayed the Keller’s house merits discussion for its ingenuity. Rather than simply painting a background with the façade of a house, the set designer suspended the frames of windows and a door of the house as well as a separating beam between the first and second floors. Behind the frame and inside the house sits a row of chairs in which the cast members rest or yell from while they are not present in the foreground. I enjoyed this primarily because other than in class, I have never seen this approach taken on a set and it worked really well with this play. It added an extra dimension to the occurrences within the play, for rather than having each cast member exit the stage at the conclusion of their lines, each actor returned to their seat “in” the house and watched the play just as the audience did. This emphasizes the scrutiny under which the Keller family suffered following the production scandal, with all of the character’s eyes constantly on Joe, Kate, and Chris. Lacking only a place to stand on the second floor of the house framed by the second floor window, albeit understandably, the ingenuity exhibited in the construction of the stage for //All My Sons// constantly served as a point of interest for the audience in addition to the action within the play.

Pertaining to the final aspect of the stage that I enjoyed, as simple as it seemed, was the screen behind the see-thorough house. Projected onto the screen, colors reflected both the time of day and the mood of the play. During the morning in the first scene, orange and reddish hues melted into each other in order to imitate the sky and horizon of the early morning. At the start, before the revealing of the dark and secretive background of the characters, the tones and moods of the characters was happy, content, and almost joyful as the characters joked around with each other and spoke of optimistic topics, which matched the color scheme displayed on the screen. Contrastingly, in the final scene that took place late in the night, dark shades of blue depicted both the night sky as well as the depressing and emotionally taxing concluding events of the play, up until the conclusion during which Joe commits suicide due to his immense guilt and refusal to turn himself in to prison as the screen darkens and the lights fade out when Chris and Kate mourn the loss of their father and husband. Transitioning gradually throughout the play, the colors on the screen reflected the action and the time of day beautifully, as the play naturally gets darker in subject matter as the play goes on and secrets and details are revealed to the audience. In conjunction with the other characteristics of the stage: the metallic elements, the jutting stage, and the wall-less house, the screen added more than one would expect to the overall effectiveness of the play and compounded the impressiveness of the production.

Not only benefiting from a fantastic stage, UGA’s production of //All My Sons// also achieved its success with the help of a talented cast, which included the well-versed Brian Reddy. Experienced in both theatre and film, Reddy contributed immensely to the powerfulness of the production in his performance and decorum. With a voice projected seemingly without effort throughout the audience, Reddy delivered each line with a natural and appropriate demeanor. During the opening scenes of the play, he introduced his character, Joe Keller, as a very social and joyful business man, and slowly unveiled the reality that the father of this tragic family guarded and often rejected some heavy secrets from his beloved living son. For example, most of his lines at the beginning of the play were joking jabs at either his neighbor of son or a third party, delivered as he read the want ads in the paper. However, towards the end of the first scene Reddy’s attitude turned serious as he questions his son about the presence of Ann at their house. This transition reveals the complexity of the character of Joe and that he lacks the simplicity of a happy go-lucky father. Continuously revealing more and more about Joe’s sins and attempts to cover up his great sin, Reddy needlessly, although appropriately, proves his adeptness at breaking down a character through his interactions with the other cast members and such strong emotional deliveries of his lines, of which there are many impressive examples.

During the final conflict between Joe and his son Chris, in which Chris finally understands his father’s shameful culpability in the death of the twenty-one Air Force soldiers, Reddy’s facial expressions exhibit his anguish as he pleads with futility for Chris’ understanding as to why he allowed flawed cylinders to leave the factory. As Chris and Joe, no longer Harry Valentine and Brian Reddy, argued with passionate anger and remorse, and as Chris grabbed Joe by the collar and threw him to the ground, I felt immersed in the intense emotion, almost to the point that I forgot to breathe for those powerful moments, especially when Joe chillingly cried out for his son after Chris stormed off the stage. This relationship between father and son exhibited a certain realness that proved capable of convincing the audience with its emotion and influence. The way Reddy yelled reminded me of arguments I have had with my father, none of which were on the same scale of severity – that which concerned human lives – but still resonated with me as I observed the play. Brian Reddy’s presence, along with the other talented actors, significantly added to the emotional aspect of the production of //All My Sons// as well as the entertainment and artistic value of the play.

Along with Reddy, Valentine as Chris Keller presented his character as a very relatable and calm post-war ex-soldier and business man in love. In comparison to his often hysterical mother and jovial yet concerned father, Chris provides an element of collectedness and for much of the play this character holds everything together, despite the chaos and dark undertones kept hidden throughout the production. Valentine often displayed facial expressions that exemplified the purpose of this character, frequently sporting a smirk as his character attempted to maintain the peace between other characters as well as to relax his mother. For example, when Kate acts like a typical mother and underhandedly insults Ann, Valentine, as Chris, diffuses the tension by changing the subject or by telling a joke. Valentine does this so well that the audience forgets that it is watching actors rather than a scene from someone’s actual life. In this sense, the audience serves as almost a nosy neighbor, listening into the drama of a tragic family. Contrastingly, Chris finally loses his temper during the final scene in which he realizes his father was responsible not only for the death of his brother, but also for the demise of twenty-one other fellow soldiers. When Valentine lunged and grabbed Reddy by the collar, the anger visible on his face and the rigidity of his body as he shook the Broadway player invoked a sense of fear among the audience in the observance of such an expressive form of rage. This explosive scene pulled everything together, and the dynamic between Reddy and Valentine made it possible. With extraordinary casting that allowed for the convincing portrayal of familial relationships and a stage that creates an extra dimension of detail and symbolism, UGA’s production of //All My Sons// left me in awe at its conclusion with its emotional resonance. Ultimately, if any flaws existed in the production other than few negligible instances of stuttered lines (it was opening night), none of them took away from the greatness of the play. In conclusion, I am grateful for the opportunity to see Brian Reddy on stage and to experience Arthur Miller’s //All My Sons// in such a profound production.