Review: All My Sons, Wyndham’s Theatre

Arthur Miller‘s classic All My Sons returns to the West End in a minimalist version from Ivo Van Hove, that heightens the emotion and puts the focus tightly on the unravelling Keller family. While Bryan Cranston makes a masterful return to the London stage, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires and Paapa Essiedu would be deeply underserved by any focus purely on the celebrity actor. 

As patriarch Joe, Cranston’s intensity sits under the surface waiting, making the moments towards the end where it breaks absolutely electrifying. Essiedu absolutely shines as son Chris – a slower, calmer start for Chris’s story but as the evening goes on, you can’t take your eyes from him, and the betrayal, rage and sadness is palpable. Essiedu and Cranston are extraordinary in their final fracturing – raw, broken, and entirely believable. Jean-Baptiste’s Kate still holds the family together, showing a quiet strength in her face over the loss of eldest son Larry, while balancing the family’s deep secrets and totally coming into her own. Squires plays Ann, the outsider, sweetheart of the missing son, who becomes the moral compass forcing the Kellers to face hard truths and buried lies. She magnificently gives the family’s unravelling a grounded, principled contrast with quiet, inherent, dignity.

Scenic design by Jan Versweyveld is minimal; simply the memorial tree for Larry, downed by a storm. It’s complemented by his superb lighting which brilliantly changes how the set looks, disclosing detail and building into the secrets and trauma haunting the Kellers. The simplicity of the design keeps the focus on the family, leaving their disintegration feeling even more brutal. The accompanying music throughout (sound design by Tom Gibbons) is sometimes quiet and at other times swelling with emotion or tension, superbly supporting those moments. When the music comes to the fore, it draws the audience in and dials our focus right up. 

Van Hove is running this straight through, with no interval: the original has three acts. It now runs at just over two hours fifteen minutes. Some of the standing ovation is no doubt slightly encouraged by a need for people, especially taller people, to stretch their legs! But seriously, it’s a divisive choice and there was some small, repeated disruption from around the 1h45m mark when people needed a break or had to leave for whatever reason. In this case though, it feels the long runtime is worthwhile. Van Hove has beautifully paced this: the tension and underlying sense that something is wrong builds and builds and builds. Choosing to have no interval allows this to continue uninterrupted and really brings the audience on the relentless journey. You can feel them on the edge of their seats, with audible gasps when revelations land. The emotional fallout that follows is genuinely affecting.

Miller’s play, written in 1946, rings as true today as when it debuted. He based All My Sons on a true story, of flawed engine parts being let through a supply chain and resulting in deaths. With themes of responsibility versus self-interest, this production opens in London days after the UK’s Covid Inquiry reported. History repeats and repeats, and it lands with uncomfortable force. Some things never change and putting your own (or your political) reputation ahead of the truth and the good of others… Well, that says it all really.

All My Sons remains an impressive, timeless piece of work. And here Van Hove has brought together a cast and crew that demonstrate just why the play endures, delivering an exceptional production. 

Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Ivo Van Hove
Scenic & Lighting Design by Jan Versweyveld
Sound Design by Tom Gibbons

All My Sons plays at Wyndham’s Theatre until Saturday 7 March.