All My Sons

The action of the play takes place three years after the end of WWII. During the war, Joe Keller and Steve Deever ran a machine shop which made airplane parts. Deever was sent to prison because the firm turned out defective parts, causing the deaths of many men, but Keller went free and made a lot of money. The twin shadows of this catastrophe, plus the fact that one of Keller’s sons was reported missing in action, dominate the story. The love affair of Chris Keller and Ann Deever, the bitterness of her brother George who returned from the war to find his father in prison and his father’s partner free, are all set in a structure of almost unbearable power and lead to a fitting conclusion that is electrifying in its intensity.