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Non-traditionally cast
ALL MY SONS
sheds new light on Arthur Miller’s classic
Matrix Theatre presents
third in a series
of plays examining race in America
LOS ANGELES, CA –
September 20, 2011 – A multi-ethnic production sheds new light on
Arthur Miller’s powerful All My Sons,
with previews beginning October 13 and the opening set for
October 22 at
the Matrix
Theatre.
Miller’s gripping tale of corporate greed versus
social responsibility remains as electrifying today as when first
presented in 1947, but producer Joseph Stern and director
Cameron Watson have upped the ante, presenting this
non-traditionally cast version as the third play in a
trilogy examining race in America through the lens of different
playwrights.
In All My Sons, Joe Keller and Steve Deever, partners in a
machine shop during World War II, knowingly turned out defective
airplane parts that caused the deaths of many men. Now, the past
has come back to haunt their families.
Stern emphasizes that “we’re
not re-setting the play in another time or place, or
deconstructing it, but when audiences see this
extraordinary cast, the issues inherent in Miller's play are
experienced in a fresh, expanded cultural context.”
The casting process was far from color blind. “We’ve cast this
play in a very deliberate way,” he explains. “The Kellers are a
mixed race family—Joe
Keller is black (Alex Morris), Kate Keller is white (Anne
Gee Byrd), and son Chris is bi-racial (A.K.
Murtadha). The Deevers are Asian with Linda Park as
Ann Deever and James Hiroyuki Liao
as George.
Meanwhile, the neighbor families, the Baylisses (Anita Barone
and Taylor Nichols) and the Lubeys (Maritxell Carrero
and Armand Vasquez) are white and Latino respectively.
In 2009,
Stern presented Lydia Diamond’s Stick Fly, offering black
and white audiences the chance to see upper-middle class African
American characters seldom seen in the theater, where work often
focuses on working class or “ghetto” life. Stick Fly went
on to win the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award for
production, as well as LA Weekly, Back Stage and Ovation
awards for writing and ensemble.
In 2010, Neighbors, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, was an
incisive study of the history of racism in America, embodied by an
interracial middle class couple, their bi-racial daughter and a
family of black minstrels in blackface. The controversial
production aimed to dispel stereotypical perceptions of black
sexuality, behavior and culture. Neighbors was the
recipient of multiple LADCC and Back Stage awards, and has
just been nominated for four Ovations, including Best Play. The
play will open later this month at the Mixed Blood Theatre in
Minneapolis, directed by Nataki Garrett, who directed the Matrix
production
Now, in 2011, The Matrix Theatre Company presents All My Sons,
the American classic about post-war America and its effect on two
families and their neighbors, breaking down expectations of
casting conditioned into American audiences of all backgrounds.
“Taken together,” says Stern, “these three plays are an attempt to
start a dialogue that may make some uncomfortable, but will
ultimately emerge as a healing act for both audiences and artists.
The Matrix will continue to explore issues of race in the future.”
Set design for All My Sons is by John
Iacovelli; lighting design is by Brian Gale; costume
design is by Marcy Froehlich; properties design is by
Chuck Olsen; casting is by Jami Rudofsky; production
stage manager is Gil Tordjman; and the managing director is
Allain Rochel.
Under the leadership of producer Joseph Stern, The
Matrix Theatre Company endeavors to build a creative environment
by exploring a variety of theatrical genres and styles that
constantly challenges both actor and audience. This innovative
technique has been critically acclaimed and rewarded—including
numerous Ovation, L.A. Weekly, Drama-Logue and Backstage Garland
Awards, and a total of 41 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards
- the largest number of LADCC Awards garnered by any intimate
theater in Los Angeles. The Matrix Theatre Company has been
honored by the LADCC with consecutive Outstanding Production
awards for Stick Fly (2009); The Tavern (1993),
The Seagull (1994) and The Homecoming (1995), and
Betrayal (1984); Outstanding Ensemble for Mad Forest
(1996); and with four LADCC awards for The Water Children
(1998). The Birthday Party (2001) was named Best Revival
Production by the L.A. Weekly and received numerous nominations
and awards, including five LADCC nominations, among others.
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FEATURE ARTICLES
LA STAGE TIMES
Stern's Multi-Culti Look for ALL MY SONS at the Matrix
by Julio Martinez
Joseph
Stern is making himself comfortable on a deck chair that’s part of
the backyard patio set taking up almost all of Matrix Theatre
Company’s ample stage area. On October 22, Stern’s company is
presenting “not just another production” of Arthur Miller’s 1947
American tragedy, All My Sons, directed by Cameron Watson.
“The cast is ethnically mixed and we cast the play specifically
that way,” Stern explains.
“The main protagonist Joe Keller (Alex Morris) is black and his
wife Kate (Anne Gee Byrd) is white. Their son Chris (A.K. Murtadha)
is biracial. The adult children of Joe’s former business partner,
Ann Deever (Linda Park) and her brother George (James Hiroyuki
Liao) are Asian. The neighboring families, the Baylisses (Anita
Barone and Taylor Nichols) and the Lubeys (Maritxell Carrero and
Armand Vasquez) are white and Latino, respectively.”
After establishing himself as a successful television executive,
Stern founded the Matrix in 1977, intent on producing stage works
that adhered to classical standards. In a July 1979 Drama-Logue
interview, he affirmed his mandate “…that the proper actors are
cast for each part, that the actors are faithful to the words.
That everything be accurate and true to character, true to
period.” Under the leadership of Stern, Matrix has garnered a
total of of 41 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards.
About four years ago, Stern decided to take a different approach.
“After 30 years of classical work, I decided to change my
programming here, to embrace what I felt was the most important
theme in our lives. I wrote my company members and asked the
questions: When you act in a play in Los Angeles and look out at
the audience, do you see many faces of color out there? And on a
daily basis, how many people do you interact with that are people
of color? Based on the responses I got and my own personal
feelings, I knew I wanted to do things differently. I had seen
Yellowman [Dael Orlandersmith's play in which the characters
are African American] at the Fountain Theatre [in 2005], and I
wanted the kind of mixed audiences that were seeing that play to
come to the Matrix.
“I talked to a lot of people, met artists of many different
ethnicities. It took me a couple of years to figure out what I was
going to do. I finally decided to do a three-play season. I just
didn’t know at the time it would take me three years to pull it
off. I had this ideal in my head and I was determined to keep
searching until I had the works I wanted to present on this
stage.”
In 2009, Stern presented Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond,
focusing on upper-class African American characters seldom seen in
the theater. Its acting ensemble won an Ovation Award, and the
production also garnered LA Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly and
Back Stage Awards. In 2010, the Matrix premiered Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins’ Neighbors, a study of racism in America,
personified by an interracial middle class couple, their bi-racial
daughter and a family of black minstrels in blackface who move
next door. This work has been nominated for four 2011 Ovations,
including Best Play in an Intimate Theater. Neighbors
recently opened at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, helmed
by Nataki Garrett who also staged the Matrix production. All My
Sons is the third play in Stern’s trilogy.
“I am happy now this has taken this long to pull off,” Stern
affirms. “I wanted this to be an accumulative experience for the
audience. Stick Fly and Neighbors were specifically
about the black experience, looked at from varying perspectives.
Then I wanted to take an American classic and cast it
non-traditionally — but not just throw it up against the wall and
cast whatever color actor did the best audition.” He chose All My
Sons because it “was perfect for multi-ethnic casting, allowing
for a representation of the different ethnicities that would be so
common in a neighborhood today.”
Stern had the ethnic assignments figured out before the production
was cast. “I knew exactly how I wanted to cast each role. I knew
Joe was going to be black, his wife white and his son, biracial. I
wanted the fiancé and brother to be Asian, which I knew would be
the most controversial casting, because of the play’s proximity to
World War II. I also wanted the neighboring families to be white
and Latino, which is common in today’s Los Angeles but not in the
1947 Midwest.”
Stern had seen one of the actors, Alex Morris, in the play
Motor Trade at Rogue Machine (March 2011). “He has such a
wonderful working-class presence as Joe. He brings this earthiness
to the role, quite believable as someone who clawed his way up to
prominence during the Depression, but still exudes the deep-rooted
persona of a laborer.” Anne Gee Byrd, who plays Joe’s wife, also
scored a hit at Rogue Machine with Joel Drake Johnson’s
award-winning Four Places (April 2010). She is also a 2011 Ovation
nominee for her featured role in the Antaeus Theatre production of
The Autumn Garden.
For director Cameron Watson, who has a long history of involvement
with the plays of another American theatrical icon, Horton Foote,
this is his first outing with an Arthur Miller play. He admits
that one of the most emotionally involving aspects of the
production was the casting process. “I heard from many of the
actors who came in to audition that they were in awe because they
never dreamed they’d ever be asked to read for one of these
classic Americana roles.
“There were Asian American actresses who quite emotionally
expressed how deeply affected they were that they had a chance to
audition to play Ann Deever in Arthur Miller’s play. And after the
play was cast, that excitement of discovery carried right through
into the rehearsal process. It was a very fresh opportunity for
most of these actors.
“Because these actors are all so good, I found myself discovering
the play right along with them. It has been an intricate and
delicate exploratory process. We’ve had these great revelations
and epiphanies together. I really believe that since most of the
actors are working with material they never had a chance to do in
their careers before, maybe it has opened up some things that
would not have happened with a traditional all-Caucasian cast.”
During the rehearsal process Watson has come to believe he is
seeing and listening to the people Arthur Miller created. He has
no doubt audiences will believe it as well. “The way this family
looks, and the way the neighborhood looks, takes care of itself
the minute you see everybody. This is who these people are and
this is how the yard looks at this point in time. Nothing needs to
be layered on to the text that’s not there. The actors understand
they just need to tell this story that has been so beautifully
scripted by Miller. I can’t wait until we get an audience in
here.”
 LA
STAGE INSIDER
by Julio Martinez
THE
THING IS… “To be able to audition for a role like this just
doesn’t happen to someone like me. Being a minority, I could only
come across this character in drama school or acting class. I
never would have thought I’d be doing this on a professional stage
out in the real world. It was not only an amazing experience to be
able to audition; but actually to be able to explore this play,
this character and to share it with the public was like entering a
whole new world. I can’t help being an Asian American girl. That
comes with me the second I step on stage. Allowing that to happen
while inhabiting this role and moving forward within the ensemble
feels so natural. I am this character. Now my mind is more open to
the possibilities. I am doing a classic all-American Arthur Miller
play. How about Tennessee Williams next? I’m ready.” – Korean
American thesp Linda Park portrays Ann Deever in the Matrix
Theatre production of Arthur Miller’s 1947 Pulitzer and Tony
winning All My Sons
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REVIEWS
BACKSTAGE - Critic's Pick!
Review by Melinda Schupmann
Producer Joseph Stern concludes his
three-year trilogy ("Stick Fly," Neighbors") with Arthur Miller's
classic tale of misguided greed and lies that fracture the lives
of a family and its friends and neighbors. Deliberately cast with
multiethnic actors, this production gets its heft from the
remarkably fine portrayals by all onstage.
The Keller family comprises black father Joe (Alex Morris), white
mother Kate (Anne Gee Byrd), and mixed-race son Chris (A.K.
Murtadha). Asian brother and sister Ann (Linda Park) and George
Deever (James Hiroyuki Liao) were former neighbors and grew up
with Chris and his deceased brother, Larry. Their father, Joe's
former partner, is in prison for selling defective airplane parts
that killed 21 soldiers. Other neighbors are Dr. Jim (Taylor
Nichols) and Sue Bayliss (Anita Barone), who are white, and Frank
(Armand Vasquez) and Lydia Lubey (Maritxell Carrero), who are
Latino.
Joe's lie that he was only marginally involved in the deaths has
given him a reduced prison sentence, but many suspect he had
complicity in the crime. This, then, becomes the crux of the
tragedy of an average man with a fatal flaw.
Cameron Watson's direction is pitch-perfect. Morris and Byrd are
pros, handling the sensitive characterizations with nary a
misstep. Park and Murtadha are also excellent as the attractive
couple whose future together unravels as Chris becomes aware of
his father's guilt and Ann delivers a heartbreaking suicide note
from Larry. Liao's palpable grief, as George, over his father's
condition is remarkably moving.
Miller's setting is an American town in a carefully defined,
post-WWII time period. As superior as the ensemble is and as
universal as the human failings, it is difficult to see Miller's
characters so modern in their lack of racial bias. The country was
still deeply divided, particularly considering the catalytic
inclusion of the Japanese in the war. This artifice was mildly
disconcerting.
This production should not be missed, as it has authenticity of
characters and allows audiences to recapture Miller's fine
craftsmanship. It rings true in today's climate of corporate
avarice and shifting morality.
STAGESCENE LA
by
Steven Stanley
WOW! It’s been nearly
sixty-five years since Broadway audiences first thrilled to Arthur
Miller’s All My Sons, decades during which countless actors have
put their stamp on the now iconic roles of factory owner Joe
Keller, Joe’s son Chris, Chris’s fiancée Ann Deever, and Ann’s
brother George. It’s a sure bet, however, that few if any of them
have ever looked like Alex Morris, A.K. Murtadha, Linda Park, and
James Hiroyuki Liao—and for obvious reasons. The Kellers and
Deevers are Caucasian. Morris, Murtadha, Park, and Liao are not.
To be sure, race-appropriate casting makes perfect historical
sense in a period piece like All My Sons. That being said, theater
is by its very definition a sort of alternate reality, making the
Matrix Theatre Company’s non-traditional casting of its brilliant
All My Sons revival a perfectly sensible decision as well.
Not that there won’t be those who will protest, and rightly so,
that Arthur Miller never intended for his play to be “an
examination of race in America,” which is how producer Joseph
Stern has described this production, mistakenly I believe. Another
legitimate complaint would be that that Stern’s decision to cast
the Kellers as (in his words) “a mixed race family—Joe Keller is
black, Kate Keller is white, and son Chris is biracial”—is a form
of revisionist history, one that denies the realities of race
relations at the time Miller wrote this play.
I prefer simply to consider the Matrix Theatre ensemble an
inspired example of colorblind casting, taking one of the truly
great plays of the 20th Century and affording a rainbow spectrum
of actors the rare opportunity to portray some of the richest
roles ever written for the American stage. See All My Sons with
colorblind lenses and you have a truly remarkable production, and
one which makes Miller’s themes all the more universal and
relevant to this 21st Century world.
And trust me. Not only do Morris, Murtadha, Park, and Liao fit
their All My Sons roles to a T in every way but racially, the
entire cast’s performances rank among the finest you will ever
see. (I speak from experience, having seen six previous
productions.)
Debuting on Broadway less than two years after World War II ended
with Japan’s surrender, Miller’s examination of personal
responsibility in time of war remains every bit as powerful and
relevant in 2011 as it did in 1947.
Miller’s Tony Award-winning drama centers on a day in the life of
the Kellers, a Midwest family who seem from the outside to be
living the American Dream. At curtain up, prosperous factory owner
Joe Keller (Morris), his wife Kate (Anne Gee Byrd), and their
adult son Chris (Murtadha) are welcoming a visit from grown up
next door neighbor Ann Deever (Park), back in town for the first
time since moving to New York several years earlier. Ann and the
Kellers’ older son Larry were an item when Larry went off to war,
but the elder Keller boy was declared missing in action three
years ago, and there has been no word of his fate. Though Kate
steadfastly refuses to believe that Larry is dead, Ann apparently
feels quite differently about the matter. She and Chris have been
corresponding secretly for the past two years, and Ann’s return
home signals a change in their relationship. Friendship has turned
to long distance love, and Chris is planning to propose to Ann.
There’s only one hitch. An engagement between Chris and Ann would
mean a tacit acceptance of Larry’s death, and this is something
which Kate will never do.
There’s one other stumbling block to the young couple’s potential
happiness together. Ann’s father (and Joe’s business partner)
Steve was sentenced to prison three years earlier for having
knowingly sent out a shipment of defective airplane parts from
Joe’s and his factory, cracked cylinder heads which led to the
deaths of twenty-one pilots. Joe had initially been found guilty
as well, however his insistence that he was home sick in bed the
day the order got shipped out, corroborated by Kate, soon relieved
him of any responsibility for the plane crashes, and he was
subsequently released from prison.
When Ann’s brother George (Liao) shows up on the Kellers’ doorstep
following a prison visit with his father, the stage is set for a
two-family showdown which will forever alter the path of Chris
Keller’s life and the lives of those he loves.
All My Sons works brilliantly on many levels—as a story of family,
as a love story, as a mystery, and as a discussion starter. Even
more than six decades after its premiere, All My Sons’ questions
still ring true. Does a person’s responsibility to his family
trump his responsibility to his country? Does war bring out the
worst in people, or their best? Can a person go on living without
self respect or the respect of others?
As its secrets are revealed, All My Sons becomes steadily more
engrossing. Expect to gasp. Expect to cry. Expect to be moved
profoundly by this truly great work of American
theater—particularly as directed by the brilliant Cameron Watson,
who having never seen a production of All My Sons, approaches the
masterpiece with brand new eyes—and this fresh, original approach
shows in his cast’s unforgettable performances.
Morris brings a quarter century of much lauded work (he won L.A.’s
Ovation award for his superb performance in Jitney) to the role of
Joe Keller, one which he plays with explosive power and oceans of
depth. Byrd proves once again as Kate why nearly every one of her
performancea is welcomed with award nominations galore. The L.A.
stage star’s steely, controlled work as the steely, controlling
Kate is positively riveting, and never more so than when we watch
helpless as the matriarch’s world unravels before her eyes.
Murtadha is an absolutely wonderful Chris, making us believe in
his idealism, his passion, and his ultimate disillusionment. An
impressive Park makes Ann everything an Ann Deever should be,
tough, determined, and passionately in love.
Supporting the above quartet is the splendid work of Taylor
Nichols as good-natured neighbor Jim Bayless; Armand Vasquez, an
earnest, understated Frank Lubey; Maritxell Carrero, perky
perfection as Lydia Lubey, and Taylor Scofield, a charmer as
wide-eyed neighbor boy Bert. I’ve had reservations in other
productions about the ways some of these roles were performed. I
have none whatsoever about the performances on the Matrix stage.
Finally, there is the truly stellar work of Liao as George and
Anita Barone as neighbor Sue Bayliss, performances which make it
crystal clear why these are two of the absolute best supporting
roles in the Arthur Miller oeuvre. Liao’s work here is a
revelation, particularly to a reviewer who has expressed
reservations minor and major about previous Georges. With the
intensity and depth of a young Brando, Liao grabs your heart from
his first appearance as Ann’s angry, guilt-ridden brother and
never lets go. Unlike others before him, the native Brooklynite’s
performance is never forced, never less than authentic, and when
he allows George to once again feel the Kellers’ warmth, the
transformation is stunningly achieved. Like Liao, Barone makes the
absolute most of her every Sue moment, earning laughs where others
may have played it too dark, giving the character an outward
sunniness that makes her digs all the more piercing. Simply put,
Barone’s is one of the very best Sues ever.
A phenomenal design team makes this All My Sons look and sound
absolutely terrific. Scenic designer John Iacovelli takes full
advantage of the wide Matrix stage, giving us the façade and porch
of the Keller home and an ample lawn and rocker-for-two for the
cast to perform on. Like this production, Iacovelli’s set is both
realistic and fanciful, and it works. Marcy Froehlich has costumed
the cast to late 1940s perfection, and propmaster Chuck Olsen
deserves kudos as well. Steven Cahill’s sound design ups the
dramatic ante along with providing various authentic sounding
effects. Brian Gale lights this all with consummate artistry (and
some stunning fadeouts).
Jami Rudofsky is casting director, Gil Tordjman stage manager, and
Allain Rochel managing director.
My advice to all lovers of great L.A. theater is as follows. Lay
all reservations aside and let the performances of this
magnificent cast give you an All My Sons like never before.
Whether discovering Arthur Miller’s masterpiece for the first time
or rediscovering it for the umpteenth, this is an all-around
brilliant production, and one most definitely not to be missed.
STAGESCENE LA
"All My Sons" Keep It All In The Family
by Madeline Shaner
"The play's the thing," said Hamlet
in that other famous play, "in which I'll catch the conscience of
the King." No words could ring more true when applied to another
great play, Arthur Miller's "All My Sons."
"Oh, that old chestnut!" said doubting Thomas, who wouldn't stay
for an answer. Had he been less hasty, he would have experienced a
drama far beyond his reckoning, a shattering production of
Miller's 1947 masterpiece, updated to 2011, not in its text or its
subtext, but in producer Joseph Stern's non-traditional,
multi-ethnic casting. And why not? Stern has been infiltrating the
present and, one can only hope, the future with plays that reflect
the increasingly multi-ethnic casting of our daily lives in
American and in many other parts of our 21st Century world. For 30
years, Stern has successfully produced classical theatre, building
a widely admired body of work that brought the best of theatre to
an appreciative audience, but with hardly a nod to a second or
third world that had only just begun to be intellectually or
artistically explored after WWII.
In 2009, Lydia Diamond's "Stick Fly," focused on an upper-middle
class African American family, won all the gold for its
production, followed by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' "Neighbors," a
starkly dark study of racism in America, directed by Nataki
Garrett, which recently opened in Minneapolis with Garrett
admirably attached as director.
In casting "All My Sons," the aim was for a multi-racial cast
which, after the audience's initial exchange of questioning
sideways glances, takes off like a rocket headed for the moon, or
at least the stars.
Yes, the time is post-WWII, and the location is small-town
America, but the cast is multi-ethnic, for no reason other than
each actor is a perfect fit for his or her role. Alex Morris, an
African American, sturdily inhabits the solid Joe Keller, the
above-average "Joe" who clawed his way up to management in The
Depression and is happily enjoying the life of Riley in a fine
house in a middle class family neighborhood, with his haunted,
Caucasian wife, Kate, an always phenomenal Anne Gee Byrd, and his
youngest son, Chris, a very credible, and personable bi-racial A.K.
Murthadha. Linda Park, a sweetheart of an Asian beauty, plays the
role of Ann Deever, the fiancée of Joe and Kate's older son who,
three years after war's end, is still missing in action, a major
plot point Kate refuses to believe. James Hiroyuki Liao, also
Asian, is Ann's brother, George, who has sturdy incentive to take
his sister home, away from the Keller household. The neighbors,
Dr. Bayliss (Taylor Nichols) and his wife, Sue (a charming, chatty
Anita Barone) are Caucasian, and Frank and Lydia Lubey are Latino.
The role of Bert, the neighborhood brat, is shared by the cute
Tobie Hess and Taylor Scofield. Honors to director Cameron Watson,
who has given new, exciting life to a classic, still devastating
play, and to Joseph Stern who never fails to win hearts and minds
with his insistence on quality theatre.
Like many of us, I've seen (many times), read, and even played in
"All My Sons" in my speckled career, but never have I been so
moved as I was last Saturday by Miller's gerat play. I remained,
transfixed, in my seat during intermission, and, woe is me, was
stumbling and practically blinded by wrenching tears at the final
curtain.
John Iacovelli's lovely mid-west backyard design, with lighting by
Brian Gale and sound design by Steven Cahill, lends a comfortable,
homey presence to the sometimes stressed, more complex than they
seem, Keller household.
Go, go, go, go see "All My Sons," or "All Our Sons," as it
might very well be called.
WORKING AUTHOR
by
Ernest Kearney
Joe Keller (Alex Morris) has owned and operated his metal factory
for forty years. He nearly lost everything though when at the
height of the war his company was accused of knowingly shipping
damaged cylinder heads that resulted in the deaths of 21 army
flyers. He and his partner Steve Deever are both arrested. Blame
for their shipping falls on Deever alone. Joe is released while
his former partner is tried and imprisoned. Joe and his wife Kate
(Anne Gee Byrd) watched as their two sons go off to serve their
country. Larry, their oldest, who was engaged to Deever’s
daughter, becomes a fighter pilot in the Pacific theater. His
younger brother Chris (A.K. Murtadha) sees combat in Europe. It’s
now August, 1946. The war has ended and Chris returned to work
beside his father in the family business. Larry didn’t return. His
plane vanished over the China Sea in 1943. Even after three years,
Kate maintains an unwaveringly faith that he’s alive, collecting
news clipping of other sons’ miraculous returns as proof that “God
is good.”
The play opens the morning after a fierce thunderstorm had
battered the area. There is a casualty of the storm’s fury in the
Keller’s backyard, a fallen apple tree that had been planted in
the missing brother’s memory. The Keller’s are excited by a
houseguest, Ann Deever (Linda Park), daughter of Joe’s imprisoned
partner. To escape the shame of their father’s crime, her family
sold their home next door to the Keller’s and moved to New York
City. Neither she nor her brother George (James Hiroyuki Liao)
have had contact with him since.
Kate is overjoyed, finding in Ann’s surprise visit, who she still
regards as “Larry’s girl,” and the falling of the tree, signs of
her missing son’s imminent arrival. What Kate doesn’t know is she
and Chris have been corresponding the past two years and that
she’s there at his invitation where he plans to ask her to marry
him.
A “midpoint” is defined as “a position midway between two
extremes,” and that is where Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” begins,
the midpoint for two families between the two extremes of the past
and the future.
Miller’s first play failed, closing less than a week after
opening. He resolved to try his hand at playwriting once more,
vowing he’d give it up and “find some other line of work” if it
didn’t meet with better success.
His mother-in-law had shown him an article about a daughter, who
discovering her manufacturer father sold defective equipment to
the US military during the war, had reported him to the
government. This newspaper clipping was the basis for Miller’s
second play “All My Sons.”
In it he embraces the classic Greek unities unfolding the drama on
a single set over a single day. But these limitations don’t serve
to restrict the sweep of his creativity. Most notably, Miller,
drawing on the Old Testament, places in the Keller’s garden a
fallen apple tree, struck down by a bolt of lightning, both
echoing and foreshadowing the destruction and liberation that
knowledge offers.
“All My Sons” premiered in January of 1947 and ran for 328
performances. Miller stayed with playwriting. The work presents
with unsullied clarity the prowess which the young playwright
possessed as well as his promise, and can be seen as a “first
draft” to Miller’s 1949 masterwork “Death of a Salesman”.
Cameron Watson’s splendid staging of “All My Sons” now playing at
the Matrix Theatre could well serve as a textbook example for
demonstrating what the essence of good direction is. He has
presented the work in the best light of its strengths, he has
added relevance but not imposed it, and has guided his cast over
the treacherous terrain that a “classic” challenges a director
with giving his audience not a museum piece, but theater that
breathes.
The first and greatest hurdle to any director is casting. Any time
I see a show that is well cast across the board I know it means
one of two things. Either the director has a keen eye for talent
and deep respect for those who endure eight weeks of labor pains
to end in a delivery spread over six weeks with matinees on
Sunday; or the director got damn lucky; with this cast I suspect
both.
Morris, Byrd and Murtadha infuse their performances with those
nuances of agony the intimacy of families engenders. As Joe,
Morris skillfully conveys the common man’s uncommon potential for
good and evil. Park’s Ann is a study in sincerity. We feel her
love for the Keller family and her brother, and we feel her
immense loneliness establishing the internal conflicts justifying
the lateness of her third act revelation which serves as the
play’s peripeteia. Television viewers will remember Park best as
Hoshi Sato from Star Trek: Enterprise. (And that oughta put some
Klingons in the audience.)
The play’s other characters function as voices of a chorus in
division. Neighbor Frank (Arman Vasquez) like the Delphic Oracle,
is trying to provide Kate with Larry’s horoscope as proof he
couldn’t have died on the day he disappeared. Taylor Nichols
portrays Doctor Bayliss with the honest humanity of one who wishes
to heal all and suffers for his inability to. Anita Barone as his
wife deftly shifts from sweet face nurse to money obsessed nag,
personifying the Erinyes the paired furies sent by the Gods to
torment “whomever has sworn a false oath.”
Deserving special notice is Liao, for a standout performance in a
standout cast. The character of George Deever can be compared to
that of Tiresias, the blind prophet tortured by the truth he knows
and which when told is not believed. The role poises two
difficulties: Its character’s arc counterpoints a pivotal shift in
the dramatic narrative of the play, and the character’s stage time
is brief. Faced by such a double whammy many actors falter. But
Liao accomplishes this and more, bringing to the stage the stark
suffering resulting from a sin not yet known. In this he is
excellently aided by Maritxell Carrero as Lydia, once George’s
sweetheart and now married to Frank. Their short moments on stage
are mesmerizing and heartbreaking as each contends with what might
have been once, and now is lost.
Going into the production I was troubled by the notion of its
non-traditional casting – the Kellers are an interracial couple,
the Deevers Asian. This is 1947 after all, Executive Order 9102
had been nullified for less than year, the armed services still
remained segregated and I feared this would somehow jar my
“suspension of disbelief.” Well I stand corrected. Producer Joseph
Stern (“Stick Fly”, “Neighbors”, “The Birthday Party” and others –
many others!) is far too gifted and experienced to arrive at such
a decision offhandedly or merely for the sake of expedience. By
his choice of an ethnically diverse cast, Stern has brought to the
forefront of our receptiveness the play’s profound “universal
truth” in the shadow of which the loss of a “historical reality”
went all but unnoticed.
Part of Miller’s genius was his ability to see beyond the illusion
of the contemporaneous. “History always repeats itself,” the
saying goes, and the saying is dead wrong. It’s not history but
man, who unwilling or unable to learn from his past mistakes,
keeps repeating them over and over. It’s a question of
perspective. Miller recognized this and so perceived in the events
of his own day, whether in HUAC hearings or a businessman’s
betrayal, the same tragic issue found in the drama of Sophocles
and Euripides, the failure of human beings to be humane.
Near the close of “All My Sons” one character cries out in his own
defense, “A man can’t be a Jesus in this world.” In this statement
you hear the first note of a reframe which will reoccur throughout
Miller’s body of work: that one cannot be his own redeemer
cleansing away the sin by self-forgiveness. A man is what his
choices make him, and it is by our decisions “in this world” that
we decide our own damnation or salvation. Considering these
troubled times we are in, perhaps we need to be reminded of that.
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- WINNER, NAACP Award: