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We live in a country where the divide between civilians and the military is growing exponentially. Immediately following World War II, however, it was a rare and lucky person who hadn’t lost a friend or family member overseas. Yet even then, there were still those who didn’t understand that anyone’s loss was everyone’s loss.  

This is the concept that Arthur Miller examined in his 1947 play All My Sons. This was his first successful show on Broadway; had it flopped, there may have been no Death of a Salesman, no Crucible. His deft storytelling brings to light the moral and emotional struggles that many people are faced with every day: If you gain from someone else’s loss, what have you really gained? And when will repayment be exacted?

The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre brought forward this powerful drama, directed by Karen Paisley, with a shattering realism. Set as the back garden of an innocuous middle-class home, the stage could have been bare of everything save the symbolic apple tree, the performances were so compelling. The intimate space allowed the audience, ranged on either side of the performance area, to surround the action.

The characters grappled with moral ambiguities, none more so than the main character, Joe Keller, played by James Wright. Joe is a good ol’ boy with a glib answer to every question. He has been exonerated for selling damaged parts to the military during the war, causing the death of 21 soldiers. His partner and former next-door neighbor, Steve Deever, was sent to jail, found guilty of the crime. While his partner’s life and family are destroyed, Joe continues on, blithely unperturbed by his misdeeds. He doesn’t hate himself, because he doesn’t blame himself. It’s not his fault the defective parts were sold to the military—no, he blames the business, the military, his wife, his sons, his partner, just about everyone else.

His wife, Kate (Licia Watson), has her own troubles. Three years prior, her eldest son, Larry, was announced MIA, and she obsessively awaits his return. When Chris (Taylor St. John), the son that survived the war, invites home his brother’s sweetheart Ann (Natalie Liccardello) with the intention of marrying her, Kate can hardly stand it. Not only is Ann the daughter of the ruined partner, but admitting that she has moved on is as good as admitting that Larry is dead. Watson does a tremendous job of portraying Kate’s fractured mental state.

Chris now works with his father. He is not innocent; as we are told, no one who had survived the war could be innocent. But he believes, naively, in the best of people. Ann is neither innocent nor naive, but wants to believe what Chris believes. Her brother George (Doogin Brown) has had any naivety or belief stripped from him, first by the war and then their father’s incarceration.

These three young actors performed with a superb display of tension as young adults fully realizing the drastic foibles of their elders.

Besides directing, Karen Paisley joins her real-life husband (and fellow MET co-founder) Bob Paisley in playing the couple that now lives in Ann and George’s childhood home. Though at first they seem like good-natured observers, their characters offer harsh insight into their neighbors’ tricky moral situations through some revealing statements.

The cast also included Matt Griggs, Courtney Stephens, and Angel Reese. Karen Paisley pulled quadruple duty by also designing the set and costumes with Donovan Kidd and Licia Watson, respectively. Greg Casparian designed the lighting, which ranged from lightning storm to soft twilight. No one was credited with sound design, though the drone of airplanes added another dimension to the already complex emotional terrain.

REVIEW:
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
All My Sons
Runs November 16 through December 4 (reviewed Friday, November 18)
METSpace
3614 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets and more information, visit www.metkc.org or call 816-569-3226

Top photo: Taylor St. John and Doogin Brown in MET's All My Sons

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.