Theater Reviews

Mar 24, 2002 - Reno Little Theater's Solid, At Times Moving "All My Sons"

By Jack Neal

Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" is an old-fashioned play written more than a half century ago. It was, in fact, this 1947 drama that made Arthur Miller famous as a formidable, new American playwright.

The slightly over two-hour play in two acts is a neat theatrical package.

Part morality play, part love story, part an indictment of our money-driven American society, "All My Sons" is also a master work.

Revived in Reno by director Tony DeGeiso and produced by the Reno Little Theater, "All My Sons" is being given a solid, workmanlike, at times moving presentation by an excellent cast.

By painting an idyllic protrait of a typical American family, in a typical American Midwestern backyard on a summery Sunday morning, Miller's writing draws audiences in at the outset. The scene is that of a comfortable, middle-class existence. Dad relaxes on lawn furniture reading the Sunday paper. Neighbors roam back and forth between each other's yards carrying on an easy banter of jokes and non-essential conversation. Beneath this serene surface there are festering resentments. The veil of a dead son and a murderous act hangs over the Keller family and all who come in contact with them.

During World War II, Joe Keller (Leo McBride), the patriarch of the Keller family, and his partner went to trial for selling defective airplane parts that resulted in the deaths of 21 Army Air Corps pilots. Joe manages to finagle his way out of the charge leaving his weak, blameless partner to rot in prison. Ann Deever (Tyler Stewart Smith), the daughter of Joe's former partner and the girl who was to marry Joe's dead son, has been invited to the Keller's home by Chris (Matthew Mahan), Joe's surving son and business partner, who wants to marry her. Joe's wife, Kate (Chris Miller), vehemently opposes the union because she insists her dead son is still alive. At first her insistence of her son's existence is difficult to understand, then in an explosive second-act outburst her fears are made profoundly clear. "He's alive," Kate screams at son Chris, "because if he's dead, your father killed him."

Thus Miller's circle of greed closes around the Keller family like an executioner's noose, and - in Miller's grander scheme - like a noose around the moral inclinations of all society. It is in this frame of reference Joe is forced to say of the 21 dead pilots, "I guess they were all my sons."

As Joe, Leo McBride is folksy and so convincing as the shattered father his performance isn't so much a performance as it is a devastating reality. Chris Miller is equally as memorable as Joe's wife, Kate. Kate's steely, implacable belief that her son still lives is conveyed by Miller with total conviction. As Chris Keller, Joe's high-minded surviving son, and Ann Deever, the woman who takes on Chris's mother and the past so she and Chris can be married, Matthew Mahan and Tyler Stewart Smith create sympathetic characters. Mahan is passionate in his horror over what his father has done. Smith is equally as passionate in conveying her love for Chris and her dispair and disgust over the past.

The remainder of the cast is entirely competent. Ricco Fajardo (George Deever, Ann's brother ), Chris Rutski (Bert, the neighbor kid), Larry Seymour (Jim Bayless), Sue Higley (Sue Bayless), Patrick Hughes (Frank Lubey), Leslie Newcomb (Lydia Lubey) all bring off admirable characterizations.

Certainly most admirable of all, director Tony DeGeiso has molded his community-theater cast into a formidale force for driving home, and with distinction, Arthur Miller's compelling themes in "All My Sons." DeGeiso's simple, effective set design and Sam Coleman's shadowy act-two lighting create an environment in which those themes can be exploited in a riveting manner.

"All My Sons" opened Friday (3/22/2002) and can be experienced at the Wooster High School Little Theater, 1331 East Plumb Lane, Reno, Nevada (near the Reno-Tahoe International Airport), March 22, 23, 29 at 8:00 p.m., March 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m. and March 24 at 2 p.m. For information call 775-329-0661.