All My Sons 

Reviewed by Neal Weaver 
The Group Rep 
Through August 5 

RECOMMENDED 

Playwright Arthur Miller was a great admirer of Henrik Ibsen.  He shared his obsession with themes of social and personal responsibility, and meticulously built his drama through the withholding of incriminating or dangerous information. All My Sons, cast firmly in the Ibsenite mold, is centered on a seemingly ordinary family on a seemingly ordinary day, and takes place in the Keller family’s bucolic backyard on a summer morning in 1947.

Next door neighbors drop in to visit, and the only crucial event that marks the day is the fact that a tree has blown down in a storm overnight.  But within 24 hours the family will be ripped apart by a series of revelations. Slowly the facts emerge, inexorably drip-by-drip. The fallen tree was planted on the birthday of a son who was killed in World War II. The mother of the family, Kate Keller (Diane Frank), refuses to accept the fact that her son is dead, and seems convinced that he will eventually be found and return home.

Gradually we learn that Kate’s husband Joe (John Combs) has been in prison, along with next-door neighbor Mr. Deever, who was his business partner in a factory that produced airplane components. They manufactured and shipped out defective parts that resulted in the death of 21 young fliers. Subsequently, the courts exonerated Joe, and Deever was left to take full blame.

Now the surviving Keller son, Chris (Mikel Parraga-Wills) has fallen in love with Deever’s daughter Ann (Savannah Schoenecker) and wants to marry her — an idea fiercely opposed by mother Kate, who insists that Ann was her dead son’s girl, and she must wait for him to come home.

All the neighbors believe that Joe was in fact guilty but shifted blame to Deever. But the Kellers continue to believe in Joe’s innocence, till mounting evidence shatters their belief — and their family.

The crisis, when it comes, is a gut-buster, with an intensity to rival Greek tragedy. And director Linda Alznauer handles the big moments splendidly, with a harrowing energy. She does less well with the quieter moments of give and take among the neighbors. These seem awkward and stagey, partly because of the set, which makes it difficult to perceive the spatial relations among the three houses depicted.

As Joe, Combs admirably captures a man who can’t accept or acknowledge the magnitude of his own guilt. And Frank’s Kate is a woman who can’t allow herself to admit the truth because the result would be unbearable. Parraga-Wills’ Chris is a passionate idealist traumatized by the emerging facts. And Schoenecker’s Ann is a young woman riddled with anxiety because she possesses the final bit of incriminating evidence that the others don’t know about. Helen O’Brien creates a potent figure as an ambitious and mercenary wife, and Bruce Nehlsen provides an engaging cameo as her amiable doctor husband.

This is in some respects a flawed production, but most of the actors do fine work. At their best moments, they are terrific.

The Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through August 5. (818) 763-5990 or www.thegrouprep.com. Running time: two hours and 10 minutes, with one 10-minute intermission.