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Social studies
2nd Story’s dynamic All My Sons
BY BILL RODRIGUEZ
All My Sons
By Arthur Miller. Directed by Ed Shea. With Aaron Morris, Bob Colonna, Lynne Collinson, Rachel Morris, Jim Sullivan, Will Jamison, Peggy Becker, Brian DeBello, Maryellen Brito, and Sam Adrain. At 2nd Story Theatre through September 11.


Arthur Miller’s 30-plus dramas may plumb the psychological torment of individuals, but often they are social portraits of representative American personalities. Lives and decisions aren’t formed in outer space, he seems to say.

All My Sons may be set in 1947, but it still resonates today, especially in 2nd Story Theatre’s pulsing, emotionally dynamic rendition.

We’re set up for quite a soap opera when this play opens. Joe Keller (Bob Colonna) is the prosperous owner of a factory that now churns out kitchen appliances but used to produce airplane engine parts during the war. For more than three years his wife, Kate (Lynne Collinson), has been pining for a son missing in action, expecting that he will be the next miraculous returnee reported in the newspapers.

That wishful thinking has been hardest on their remaining son, Chris (Aaron Morris). Not because he feels slighted, but because he wants to marry the girl his brother left behind. Ann Deever (Rachel Morris) has traveled 700 miles, invited by him to visit, and assumes that he will propose.

Poor Chris. The threat of wasting his life is a cocked gun to his head. He’s not impressed with the money and creature comforts that his father is so proud of providing him. Another example that frightens him is next-door neighbor Jim Bayliss (Jim Sullivan), a doctor with a money-grubbing wife (Peggy Becker) who is horrified that he wants to get into low-paying research. He admires Chris as an idealist.

The emotional cross-currents here could sink a ship. Collinson has Mrs. Keller guard the unlikelihood of her son’s return with the unblinking fierceness of a mother lion protecting her cub. Colonna plays Joe as a jocular sort whose financial success and optimistic temperament insulate him from self-doubt. Chris is the linchpin that keeps this family from falling apart, and his threatening to leave causes a crisis. His mother’s refusal to bury his brother — in her own mind, that is — could destroy a life with Ann before it begins. He and his mother face off like hissing cats more than once.

But it’s Chris and Ann who give this play heart and hope. Rachel Morris supplies the strength of character that would allow a young woman to step resolutely into this turmoil. In a preview performance, Aaron Morris didn’t muster a necessary tension beneath Chris’s initial hesitancy with Ann, but by the end of the scene provided a memorable monologue in her arms.

The last two acts had me reeling in my seat from some powerful performances. As indicated above, each of the major characters contributes a striking moment or few. As the doctor who regrets his life, Sullivan looks up from a lighthearted portrayal for a moment and delivers quite a moving monologue, advising Chris to not repeat his mistake. Joe has long been suspected of having let his plant ship out defective engine cylinders during the war, a crime that cost 21 men their lives and sent Ann’s father to prison. Chris confronts him on this, as does Ann’s brother George, which Will Jamison accomplishes with finesse — especially when he comes to believe Joe’s version of events and in his relief all but sheds light.

Playwright Miller doesn’t neglect to make a few contributions, by the way. He shapes a compelling story, giving away some predictable plot points early on rather than holding them up for contrived suspense. He fashions clearly individuated characters, too, and supplies them with interesting lines. My favorite is Joe’s observation that someone "could make a million bucks if he could figure out how to bring a boy into the world without a trigger finger."

Joe Keller claimed the American Dream of prosperity that Willy Loman whimpered for in Death of a Salesman. In its own way, the tragic flaw of the amiable Keller was as consequential as that of the dour Puritans of The Crucible. We can learn from both weakness and arrogance, and it doesn’t take an election season to remind us to keep an eye out for both.

When 2nd Story artistic director Shea announced before the summer that all three plays would use the same set, it was for more than to save a few bucks. As with Picnic and Morning’s at Seven, having the events take place in the shared backyard of next-door neighbors merges action into context quite nicely — and underscores the social common-denominator.

We can expect quite a fall season — from the hoity-toity The Heiress to the hilarious The Marriage of Bette and Boo — and we’re reminded how well this troupe can handle such a range.


Issue Date: August 27 - September 2, 2004
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