Miller’s ‘Sons’ still packs a punch at Berkeley Rep
The cast of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at Berkeley Repertory Theatre includes (from left) Brandon Gill as George, Wanda De Jesús as Kate, Alejandro Hernandez as Chris, and MaYaa Boateng as Ann. Photo by Kevin Berne
The word “forget” appears more than two dozen times in Arthur Miller’s weighty 1947 drama All My Sons. Forget the soldier son who has been missing in action for three years. Forget the faulty engine part manufacturing that caused the death of 21 pilots. Forget the man in jail who took the rap for that error. Forget the guilt. Forget the grief. Forget the trauma. Simply move on and enjoy your life of comfort, safety and entitlement. Never mind the haywire moral compass.
That’s the gist of Miller’s mighty play, now in revival at Berkeley Repertory Theatre starring real-life partners Jimmy Smits (LA Law, The West Wing) and Wanda De Jesús. The play’s disenchantment and downright condemnation of the American dream and its actual costs still reverberates, even when the play itself gets heavy handed or when director David Mendizábal’s production feels unsteady.
The spectacular set by Anna Louizos is overwhelming in its size and its detailed depiction of Midwestern American contentment. The two story Keller home is surrounded by trees and neighbors who are constantly in and out of the Kellers’ nicely landscaped backyard. Windows offer peeks into the kitchen and upstairs bedrooms, and late in the play, during scenes set in the wee hours of the morning, a spectacular sky full of stars underscores one of Miller’s metaphors about idealism (and its death).
Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús as Joe and Kate Keller. Photo by Kevin Berne
It’s a vivid, hyper-real world in which we see Miller’s family drama keep expanding until it’s practically global in size. In this take, the Keller family descend from Puerto Rican immigrants, and their neighbors are mostly people of color. While Miller doesn’t ever address any of this specifically in his text, it does add even more stakes to the drama, with a different spin on some of the bad choices characters make or the things they try so mightily to ignore.
Central performances by Smits as Joe Keller and De Jesús as Kate Keller, finally gel in the play’s most operatic moments, but until then they both struggle to center the husband and wife who are bonded so powerfully by both grief and deceit. De Jesús finds more interesting nuance and detail to make Kate her own – a loving but imperious mother willfully clinging to her hard-won slice of the American dream. She is the enigmatic heart of the show.
Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winner Jimmy Smits plays troubled father and businessman Joe Keller. Photo by Kevin Berne
Alejandro Hernandez is Chris Keller, the surviving son who suffered great loss in the war. He has developed a powerful shield of idealism in which his father plays an integral part, and his transformation from defiantly optimistic to shattered is truly heartbreaking.
Several supporting players do sharp, electrifying work here, including Elisa Beth Stebbins as a neighbor who has a surprising grip with the Kellers and Brandon Gill as someone who grew up next door to the Kellers but is now a successful lawyer in New York. First we see him as an angry adult who has good reason to hate the Kellers, and then, shortly after falling into Kate’s embrace, he’s a little kid again who saw the Kellers as an extension of his family. He only has a few scenes, but he makes a huge impression among these lost American souls.
All My Sons is a diatribe against self-interest that is heavy to begin with and just gets heavier throughout its nearly three hours. By the end, it feels like there’s nothing left to trust – not your family, not your country, not even your own best instincts. It’s bleak and it’s sad, and it feels in many ways like it could have been written last week.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Arthur Miller’s All My Sons continues through March 29 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes (including one 15-minute intermission). Tickets are $25-$135 (subject to change). Call 510-647-2949 or visit berkeleyrep.org.
