Barrington Stage Company founder Julianne Boyd always shines when she directs plays that engage your emotions and your intellect—the type of theater that incites a craving for a stiff drink and a serious conversation after the final curtain. With her carefully calibrated production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Boyd has given us a fresh opportunity to marvel at the dark shadows cast by the American Dream. If you don't already know All My Sons, the title doesn't make sense until the very end, which keeps you appropriately anxious as the play builds through three acts to a disturbing yet definitive conclusion. When it opened on Broadway in 1947, The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson said: "Mr. Miller's talent is many-sided. Writing pithy yet unselfconscious dialogue, he has created his characters vividly, plucking them out of the run of American society but presenting them as individuals with hearts and minds of their own." We are lucky enough to see this play, which precedes Death of A Salesman by two years, with the benefit of hindsight; it's evidence of Miller's genius and unique ability to portray morally and emotionally conflicted characters with both compassion and unflinching clarity. All My Sons is a period piece that transcends time and place, and Boyd has deftly given us a production that feels both historical and relevant. It's like viewing a classic black-and-white movie that makes you dumbfounded by how simple life in the United States used to be while simultaneously making you think the more things change the more they stay the same. Watching Jeff McCarthy (who gave such a powerful performance a few seasons back in Sweeney Todd at BSC) as Joe Keller, the father who cannot do too much for his sons, and Lizbeth MacKay as his neurotic wife, you can't help thinking about all the women who've stood by their husbands in times of crisis—from Pat Nixon and Silda Spitzer to Ruth Madoff and Dottie Sandusky. As the young lovers who want to get married before they've ever even kissed, Rebecca Brooksher and Josh Clayton bring a believability to their roles that remind you just how much social mores have changed since the last century. All of the neighbors who come in and out of the Kellers' backyard are credible characters of another era—constrained souls doing their damnedest to figure out how to get the most out of their lives. Julianne Boyd has certainly gotten the most out of her cast and the text. All My Sons offers Berkshire audiences a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our cultural patrimony, the nature of capitalism, and what happens when love of family and old-fashioned morality come into conflict. You walk away from the theater wanting to have a shot of bourbon and a discussion on the many shades of gray between right and wrong. —Dan ShawAll My Sons at Barrington Stage Company30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA Through August 4
