“All my Sons” was Arthur Miller’s very first broadway success and from the production put on at the Mary Wallace Theatre on Friday the 29th March, it’s easy to see why.

The play is set in August 1947 and follows the Keller family three years after their son Larry went missing in the war, as Larry’s girl (Annie) becomes engaged to his brother, Chris. The family is haunted by the mystery surrounding who is responsible for the shipping of faulty plane parts which saw the death of 21 pilots. Annie’s father is serving time for the crime but accuses Chris’ father, Joe, of forcing him to make such a devastating decision. 

As the red velvet curtains lifted to reveal a beautiful veranda and blue sky, the audience could hardly guess all this was in store. Lulled into a false sense of security, they watched as the archetypal American family broke down painfully, ruined by secrets divulged. Tensions rose as revelations unfolded and when Joe finally confessed his responsibility the scene that unfolded between him and his son was stunning in its intensity. Both actors delivered a beautiful performance so that the audience couldn’t help but pity the guilty old man as he sobbed at destroying what he had tried so hard to protect. So moving was the scene that it was followed by a round of applause, despite the fact that  it was neither the interval nor the end. 

A screen formed part of the otherwise naturalistic set and on it quotes and images were projected in between the scenes. In this way, the audience’s attention was drawn to specific lines of the play, one of which was: “A father is a father…”Prompting the audience to focus on this quote made the following scene all the more emotional as this idea was challenged and defeated by Chris’ assertion that, in the context of war, family is much bigger than society’s construct of a father and mother with their biological children. 

Richmond Shakespeare Society was undoubtedly successful in their production of “All my Sons”, twisting the American Dream to highlight the devastating consequences of greed and misplaced ambition.