All My Sons @ Dundee Rep
There’s always a certain energy that comes with an Arthur Miller play and this Dundee Rep production of All My Sons deserves the hype
It’s a few years after World War II. Joe is a successful businessman, after supplying the US Air Force with engines and parts. He now lives an image of the American Dream with his wife Kate and son Chris. But the war took its toll on the Keller family. Their other son, Larry, has been missing for three or so years, leaving them in limbo. How do they move on as a family? Or can they move on? This complex family drama is layered with danger as visitors from the past arrive with old and new problems that threaten to shake the Kellers to the core.
Alex Lowde’s simplistic set – cold, jail-like, grey – perfectly pitches the tone for the piece, with a cagey frame and several barren trees. It’s extremely spacious and exposing, allowing the actors to be our only focus whilst emphasising the vulnerability of the characters and the fragility of their situation.
The cast are just electric. Irene Macdougall’s broken matriarch Kate carries you through the grief of the play with such gut and honesty. Her voice is so deep and rich in emotion that all of her anxiety, hope and desperation comes out as she clings to the signs of Larry being alive. Macdougall’s Kate matched with Barrie Hunter’s Joe is quite the exhilarating marriage. Hunter is full of subtext with some lovely touches of subtle panic but he truly shines at the climax of Act Two (add some onstage rain and it’s the most thrilling moment).
Director Jemima Levick has done a wonderful job of pinpointing the moments of drama, establishing the many conflicts, kept pace and surfaced the many secrets. The tension snowballs from start to finish and it’s a most exciting watch that shows exactly what Scottish theatre has to offer. For die-hard Arthur Miller fans, or those new to his work, this is one you have to experience.
All My Sons @ Dundee Rep, run ended