Cast

Synopsis

All My Sons is a play that has relevance to any time and place where the instruments of war are made and young men are killed by their use. Out of the clash of business ethics, loyalties and expediency that assailed one American family, Miller created a tragedy of such force that we become deeply concerned both with the fate of every character and with the underlying morality that we take painfully to ourselves. The play won the American Critics Circle award in 1947 and is still so popular that it always seems to be in performance somewhere.

Directors Notes

‘All My Sons’ opens in the back yard of the Kellers’ house on a sunny Sunday morning in August 1947 ‘any where in America’. This disarmingly ordinary setting provides the arena for a family conflict which, within twenty four hours, will go deeper and range wider than any of the protagonists imagine.

The world as it was in the aftermath of the Second World War may seem divorced from our lives today yet there are parallels. Wars have continued to rage and our young men, our sons, go out to fight, many never to return. The questions this leaves US with are no different from these asked by a previous generation. Why? What for? The answers always imply that high morality is involved. This play challenges these answers but its examination of the corrupt profiteering of arms manufacturers was seen by many people to be
unpatriotic and subversive. Many Americans are particularly sensitive on this point in the light of their experience in Vietnam and today in Haiti.

‘All My Sons’ was Arthur Miller’s first major success but it also brought criticism that he was too radical. However his brilliance as a playwright could not be ignored and he was assured further success with his later plays ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘A View form the Bridge’.