| All My Sons | |
| Setting: | The Kellers' yard in late August 1946 |
| Place: | Coronet Theatre, New York City |
| Orig Lang: | English |
| Genre: | Tragedy |
All My Sons is a three-act play written in 1946 by Arthur Miller.[1] It opened on Broadway at the Coronet Theatre in New York City on January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1947, and ran for 328 performances.[2] It was directed by Elia Kazan (to whom it is dedicated), produced by Kazan and Harold Clurman, and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. It starred Ed Begley, Beth Merrill, Arthur Kennedy, and Karl Malden and won both the Tony Award for Best Author and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. The play was adapted for films in 1948 and 1987.
Miller wrote All My Sons after his first play The Man Who Had All the Luck failed on Broadway, lasting only four performances. Miller wrote All My Sons as a final attempt at writing a commercially successful play; he vowed to "find some other line of work"[3] if the play did not find an audience.
All My Sons is based upon a true story, which Miller's then-mother-in-law pointed out in an Ohio newspaper.[4] The news story described how in 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use.[4] [5] The story of defective engines had reached investigators working for Sen. Harry Truman's congressional investigative board after several Wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company; they later testified under oath before Congress.[4] [5] In 1944, three Army Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Frank C. Greulich, Major Walter A. Ryan, and Major William Bruckmann were relieved of duty and later convicted of neglect of duty.[6] [7] [8]
Henrik Ibsen's influence on Miller is evidenced from the Ibsen play The Wild Duck, from where Miller took the idea of two partners in a business where one is forced to take moral and legal responsibility for the other. This is mirrored in All My Sons. He also borrowed the idea of a character's idealism being the source of a problem.[9]
The criticism of the American Dream, which lies at the heart of All My Sons, was one reason why Miller was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the 1950s, when America was gripped by anti-communist sentiment. Miller sent a copy of the play to Elia Kazan who directed the original stage version of All My Sons. Kazan was a former member of the Communist Party who shared Miller's left-wing views. However, their relationship was destroyed when Kazan gave names of suspected Communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare.[3] [10]
Notable casts
| Character | Broadway debut (1947) | West End revival (1981) | Broadway revival (1987) | Broadway revival (2008) | West End revival (2010) | West End revival (2019) | Broadway revival (2019) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Keller | Ed Begley | Colin Blakely | Richard Kiley | John Lithgow | David Suchet | Bill Pullman | Tracy Letts |
| Kate Keller | Beth Miller | Joan Plowright | Joyce Ebert | Dianne Wiest | Zoë Wanamaker | Sally Field | |
| Chris Keller | Arthur Kennedy | Alan Howard | Jamey Sheridan | Patrick Wilson | Stephen Campbell Moore | Benjamin Walker | |
| Ann Deever | Julie-Kate Olivier | Jayne Atkinson | Katie Holmes | Jemima Rooper | Francesca Carpanini | ||
| Dr. Jim Bayliss | Chester Erskine | Laurence Olivier | Dan Desmond | Damian Young | Steven Elder | Sule Rimi | |
| Frank Lubey | Jesse White | Brian Hawksley | Stephen Root | Jordan Gelber | Tom Vaughan-Lawlor | Gunnar Cauthery | Nehal Joshi |
| Lydia Lubey | Mildred Dunnock | Avril Elgar | Dawn Didawick | Danielle Ferland | Olivia Darnley | Jenni Barber | |
| George Deever | Christian Camargo | Daniel Lapaine | Oliver Johnstone | Hampton Fluker | |||
| Sue Bayliss | Kit Flanagan | Becky Ann Baker | Claire Hackett | Kayla Meikle | Chinasa Ogbuagu | ||
| Bert | Jonathan Powell | Michael Maronna | Michael D'Addario | Ted Allpress | Archie Barnes | Monte Greene | |
Joe Keller — Joe, 60, was exonerated after being charged with knowingly shipping from his factory defective aircraft engine cylinder heads (for Curtiss P-40 fighters) during World War II, becoming (in his own words) "the guy who made 21 P-40s crash in Australia". For over three years he has placed the blame on his partner and former neighbor, Steve Deever, although he himself committed the crime. When the truth comes out, Joe justifies his actions by claiming that he did it for his family.
Kate Keller (Mother) — Kate, 50, knows that Joe is guilty but lives in denial while mourning for her elder son Larry, who has been "missing in action" for three years. She refuses to believe that Larry is dead and maintains that Ann Deever — who returns for a visit at the request of Larry's brother Chris — is still "Larry's girl" and also believes that he is coming back.
Chris Keller — Chris, 32, returned home from World War II two years before the play begins, disturbed by the realization that the world was continuing as if nothing had happened. He has summoned Ann Deever to the Keller house in order to ask her hand for marriage, but they're faced with the obstacle of Kate's unreasonable conviction that Larry will someday return. Chris idolizes his father, not knowing initially what he has done.
Ann Deever — Ann, 26, arrives at the Keller home having shunned her "guilty" father since his imprisonment. Throughout the play, Ann is often referred to as pretty, beautiful, and intelligent-looking and as "Annie". She had a relationship with Larry Keller before hisdisappearance and has since moved on because she knows the truth of his fate. She hopes that the Kellers will consent to her marriage to Larry's brother, Chris, with whom she has had corresponded by mail for two years. Ann is the truth-bearer in the play.
George Deever — George, 31, is Ann's older brother: a successful New York lawyer, WWII veteran, and a childhood friend of Chris's. He initially believed in his father's guilt, but upon visiting Steve in jail, realizes his innocence and becomes enraged at the Kellers for deceiving him. He returns to save his sister from her marriage to Chris, creating the catalyzing final events.
Dr. Jim Bayliss — Jim, 40, is a successful doctor, but is frustrated with the stifling domesticity of his life. He wants to become a medical researcher, but continues in his job as it pays the bills. He is a close friend to the Keller family and spends a lot of time in their backyard.
Sue Bayliss — Sue, 40, is Jim's wife: needling and dangerous, but affectionate. She too is a friend of the Keller family, but is secretly resentful of what she sees as Chris's bad idealistic influence on Jim. Sue confronts Ann about her resentment of Chris in a particularly volatile scene.
Frank Lubey — Frank, 33, was always one year ahead of the draft, so he never served in World War II, instead staying home to marry George's former sweetheart, Lydia. He draws up Larry's horoscope and tells Kate that Larry must still be alive, because the day he died was meant to be his "favorable day". This strengthens Kate's faith and makes it much harder for Ann to move on.
Lydia Lubey — Lydia, 27, was George's love interest before the war; after he went away, she married Frank and they soon had three children. She is a model of peaceful domesticity and lends a much-needed cheerful air to several moments of the play.
Bert — Bert, 8, is a little boy who lives in the neighborhood; he is friends with the Bayliss' son Tommy and frequently visits the Kellers' yard to play "jail" with Joe. He appears only twice in the play: the first time, his part seems relatively unimportant, but the second time his character is more important as he sparks a verbal attack from mother when mentioning "jail", which highlights Joe's secret.
Unseen characters
Larry Keller — Larry has been MIA for some years at the start of the play. However, he has a significant effect on the play through his mother's insistence that he is still alive and his brother's love for Larry's childhood sweetheart, Ann. Comparisons are also made in the story between Larry and Chris; in particular, their father describes Larry as the more sensible one with a "head for business".
Steve Deever — George and Ann's father. Steve is sent to prison for shipping faulty cylinders to airforce a crime that not only he but also the exonerated Keller committed.
In August 1946, Joe Keller, a self-made businessman, and his wife Kate are visited by a neighbor, Frank. At Kate's request, Frank is trying to figure out the horoscope of the Kellers' missing son Larry, who disappeared in 1943 while serving in the military during World War II. There has been a storm and the tree planted in Larry's honor has blown down during the month of his birth, strengthening Kate’s belief that Larry is coming back, while Joe and Chris, the Kellers' other son, believe differently. Furthermore, Chris wishes to propose to Ann Deever, who was Larry's girlfriend at the time he went missing and who has been corresponding with Chris for two years. Joe and Kate react to this news with shock.
When Ann arrives, it is revealed that her father, Steve Deever, is in prison for selling cracked cylinder heads to the Air Force, causing the deaths of twenty-one pilots in 1943. Joe was his partner but was exonerated of the crime. Ann admits that neither she nor her brother are in touch with their father anymore. After a heated argument, Chris proposes alone to Ann, who accepts. Chris also reveals that he has survivor's guilt from losing all his men in a company he led. Meanwhile, Joe receives a phone call from George, Ann's brother, who is coming there to settle something.
Chris avoids telling his mother about his engagement with Ann. Their next-door neighbor Sue emerges and reveals to Ann that everyone on the block thinks Joe is equally guilty of the crime of supplying faulty aircraft engines. Shortly afterward, George Deever arrives and reveals that he has just visited the prison to see his father, Steve. The latter claimed that Joe told him by phone to "weld up and paint over" the cracked cylinders and send them out, and later gave a false promise that Joe would take the blame.
George insists his sister Ann cannot marry Chris Keller, the son of the man who destroyed the Deevers. Frank reveals his horoscope, which implies that Larry is alive, to Kate's pleasure. Joe maintains that he was bedridden with the flu on the fateful day of dispatch. They manage to settle George, but Kate lets slip that Joe has not been sick in fifteen years. Despite George's protests, Chris and Ann send him away.
After Kate claims to Joe and Chris that moving on from Larry would reveal Joe as a murderer, Chris concludes that George was right. Joe, out of excuses, confesses that he sent out the cracked airheads to avoid closure of the business, intending to notify the base later that they needed repairs. However, when the fleet crashed and made headlines, Joe lied to Steve and abandoned him at the factory to be arrested. Chris cannot accept his explanation that it was done for the family and exclaims in despair that he doesn't know what to do about his father.
Chris has left home. At 2 am, Kate advises Joe to express willingness to go to prison and make Chris relent, should he return. As he only sought to make money for his family, Joe is adamant that their relationship is above the law. Soon after, Ann emerges and expresses her intention to leave with Chris regardless of Kate's disdain. When Kate angrily refuses again, Ann sends Joe away and reluctantly provides Kate with a letter from Larry. Chris returns and remains torn on whether to turn Joe over to the authorities, knowing it doesn't erase the death of his fellow soldiers or absolve the world of its natural merciless state.
Joe returns and excuses his guilt on account of the abundance of profiteers in the world. Chris wearily responds that he knew but believed that Joe was better than the others. Ann takes the letter and provides it to Chris while Kate desperately tries to push Joe away. Chris reads the letter to Joe out loud. It implies that Larry committed suicide because of his father's guilt. Joe agrees to turn himself in. He goes inside to get his coat and kills himself with a gunshot off-stage. The play ends with Chris, in tears, being consoled by Kate to not take Joe's death on himself.
It's Joe's monologue at the end of Act III “Sure, [Larry] was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were” that gives the play its title.
The precise dates of events in the play are unclear. However it is possible to construct a timeline of All My Sons using the dialogues. The action takes place in August 1946, in the Midwestern United States with the main story taking place on a Sunday morning.[11]
In his Collected Plays, Miller commented on his feelings on watching an audience's reaction to a performance of his first successful play:
The success of a play, especially one's first success, is somewhat like pushing against a door which suddenly opens from the other side. One may fall on one's face or not, but certainly a new room is opened that was always securely shut until then. For myself, the experience was invigorating. It made it possible to dream of daring more and risking more. The audience sat in silence before the unwinding of All My Sons and gasped when they should have, and I tasted that power which is reserved, I imagine, for playwrights, which is to know that by one's invention a mass of strangers has been publicly transfixed.
McBurney's direction of All My Sons grew out of a meeting with Arthur Miller in 2001, shortly after the playwright saw the New York premiere of Mnemonic. Miller's daughter, Rebecca Miller, asked McBurney to direct the play.[14]
Some controversy surrounded the production, as the internet group Anonymous staged an anti-Scientology protest at the first night of preview performances in New York City (due to cast member Katie Holmes).[15] [16] The cast dedicated their performance on September 27 to the actor Paul Newman, who died the day before.
All My Sons was first adapted into a film in 1948. Edward G. Robinson played Joe Keller. It was directed by Irving Reis and gained two award nominations, Best Written American Drama and The Robert Meltzer Award for the film's co-writer Chester Erskine. In the film, Steve Deever is renamed Herbert Deever, and makes an onscreen appearance, played by actor Frank Conroy.[29]
In 1950, Lux Radio Theater broadcast a radio play of All My Sons with Burt Lancaster as Joe. The play was adapted by S. H. Barnett and, in an interesting twist, featured the character of Steve Deever in a speaking role.[30]
In 1958, the play was adapted for British television by Stanley Mann and directed by Cliff Owen. This production starred Albert Dekker as Joe Keller, Megs Jenkins as Kate Keller, Patrick McGoohan as Chris Keller and Betta St. John as Ann Deever.[31]
In 1987, All My Sons was made into a made-for-TV film. This version is more faithful to Arthur Miller's original play than the 1948 film version. The main roles are James Whitmore as Joe Keller, Aidan Quinn as Chris Keller, Michael Learned as Kate Keller and Joan Allen as Ann Deever. Direction was by Jack O'Brien.[32] [33] Unlike the 1948 version, this version refers to George's father as Steve as in the play rather than Herb or Herbert.
In 1998, L.A. Theatre Works made a studio-based full-cast production for radio broadcast on Voice of America and NPR. The play starred Julie Harris as Kate Keller, James Farentino as Joe Keller and Arye Gross as Chris Keller.[34]
The 21 P-40s that crashed in the play was the inspiration for the name of the alternative rock duo Twenty One Pilots.
All My Sons is featured in the epistolary crime novel The Appeal by Janice Hallett.
All My Sons is a 1991 song by the indie band James on the B-side of the single Sound. As an anti-war song, the premise of the lyrics is the same as the plot of the play.[35]