All My Sons
Old Vic, London

SET at a time when Americans, sure of their place in the world after the defeat of fascism in WWII, were able to pursue their collective dream, Arthur Miller’s All My Sons begins in the sunny, vernal tranquility of a leafy Mid West suburb.

That sense of security is personified in the figure of Joe Keller (Bill Pullman), a successful businessman and archetypal family man. Outside a sunlit clapboard house bordered by a picket fence he reads the papers, jokes with neighbours and chats with his son Chris (Colin Morgan).

But gradually, through throwaway comments and casual conversation – testament to Miller’s skill as a playwright – we learn that he and his wife Kate (Sally Field) had another son, Jerry, who went missing in action during the second world war which had finished only two years previously.