January 30, 1947

The Play in Review

By BROOKS ATKINSON

ith the production of "All My Sons," at the Coronet last evening, the theatre has acquired a genuine new talent. Arthur Miller, who wrote "The Man Who Had All the Luck" in 1944, brings something fresh and exciting into the drama. He has written an honest, forceful drama about a group of people caught up in a monstrous swindle that has caused the death of twenty-one Army pilots because of defectively manufactured cylinder heads.

Told against the single setting of an ordinary American backyard, it is a pitiless analysis of character that gathers momentum all evening and concludes with both logic and dramatic impact.

Mr. Miller's talent is many-sided. Writing pithy yet unselfconscious dialogue, he has created his character vividly, plucking them out of the run of American society, but presenting them as individuals with hearts and minds of their own. He is also a skillful technician. His drama is a piece of expert dramatic construction. Mr. Miller has woven his characters into a tangle of plot that springs naturally out of the circumstances of life today. Having set the stage, he drives the play along by natural crescendo to a startling and terrifying climax.

Fortunately, "All My Sons" is produced and directed by people who value it and who have given it a taut and pulsing performance with actors of sharp and knowing intelligence. It is always gratifying to see old hands succeed in the theatre. But there is something uncommonly exhilarating in the spectacle of a new writer bringing unusual gifts to the theatre under the sponsorship of a director with taste and enthusiasm. In the present instance, the director is Elia Kazan.

"All My Sons" is the drama of one crucial day in the life of the Kellers, who live "in the outskirts of an American town." It is Sunday. Mr. Keller and his neighbors are beginning the day languidly in good humor. But their family life is swept with hidden currents of anguish and misgivings. Although Joe Keller and his son, Chris, know that the second son, Larry, will never return from the war, Mrs. Keller is neurotically convincing herself that Larry is not dead. Chris wants to marry the girl to whom Larry was engaged.

That seems to have nothing against it except loyalties that ought to be dead. But presently it develops that the great horror that is hanging over the Keller family is the suspicion that Joe Keller has escaped a jail conviction for fraudulent manufacturing by making his innocent partner the scapegoat. The suspicion develops into a fact. In some skillful dramatic construction which may, indeed, be a trifle too skillful for spontaneity, Mr. Miller involves everyone in this spiritual torture and uncertainty. He has also managed to relate the particular tragedy to the whole tragedy of the war years.

For scenery, Mordecai Gorelik has designed an attractive, sunny backyard with a life of its own. In three acts that carry the play over into the darkness of the next day, the actors are giving a brilliant performance. Beth Merrill as the neurotic and tired mother give us the impression of an inner strength that dominates at least one corner of the crisis.

As Joe Keller, Ed Begley dramatizes the whole course of the father's poignant ordeal without losing the basic coarseness of the character. As the son, Arthur Kennedy is giving a superb performance with great power for the climaxes and with insight into the progress of the character.

Lois Wheeler acts the part of the neighbor's daughter with candor, youthfulness and passion, thoroughly aware of the growth of her character. As the son of the scapegoat, Karl Malden is ably conveying the confusion and horror of a weak young man plunged into a situation he can hardly understand. There are excellent performers in other parts by John McGovern, Peggy Meredith, Dudley Sadler, Hope Cameron and Eugene Steiner.

In a performance with varying tone, rising pitch and dramatic design, they are acting an original play of superior quality by a playwright who knows his craft and has unusual understanding of the tangled loyalties of human beings.

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