About the play
The story concerns the fortunes of the Keller and Deever families. During the war, Joe Keller and Herbert Deever ran a machine shop which made aeroplane parts. Deever was sent to prison because the firm turned out defective parts, causing the deaths of many men. Keller, however, went free and made a lot of money. The twin shadows of this catastrophe and the fact that the young Keller son was reported missing during the war dominate the action. The love affair of Chris Keller and Ann Deever, the bitterness of George Deever returned from war to find his father in prison and his father’s partner free, are all set in a structure of almost unbearable power. The climax showing the reactions of a son to his guilty father is a fitting conclusion to a play which is electrifying in its intensity.
The idea for All My Sons was triggered unintentionally by Arthur Miller’s mother in law. She was gossiping about a young girl in Ohio who had turned her own father in to the FBI for manufacturing faulty parts for the airforce.
A Senate Committee exposed the Wright Aeronautical Corporation of Ohio for sending faulty engines to the army. In league with army inspectors, they had changed the “Condemned” labels to “Passed” and hundreds were shipped out to the forces.
Cast
Joe Keller
Dr. Jim Bayliss
Frank Lubey
Sue Bayliss
Lydia Lubey
Chris Keller
Bert
Kate Keller
Ann Deever
George Deever
Other
Programme
Click here to download a copy of the programme (PDF format)
Review
Click here to download a transcript of the Review (PDF format)