‘All My Sons’

Emerge Theatre Company makes its debut with Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama.

By: Stuart Duncan

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TIMEOFF/FRANK WOJCIECHOWSKI
Meena Jahi (foreground) and Phillip Christian in Emerge Theater Company’s production of All My Sons in New Brunswick.


   It’s difficult to believe that All My Sons is almost 60 years old. It was Arthur Miller’s first big success (his second play), opening on Broadway in late January 1947. The show ran for 328 performances, won the New York Drama Critics Award and later the Pulitzer Prize.
   For the current revival at Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, we can welcome a new group to local theater — Emerge Theatre Company, a blend of professionals and non-professionals, including some talented performers seen previously at the Shakespeare Festival in Madison and at Mason Gross productions at Rutgers. It’s a good, well-balanced company, and Miller’s classic is a fine work to show off their strong points.
   You will remember the plot, based in part on true-life events during World War II; it focuses on the Keller family, living in an unidentified city. Joe Keller (played with dog-like intensity by Ali Reza) is apparently a self-made man who has overcome a few hiccups to acquire his own manufacturing company, a nice house, a supportive wife (Meena Jahi) and a son, Chris (Phillip Christian), whom he fully expects will take over the factory soon.
   There are a few clouds, however. Joe’s other son has been missing in action in the war for three years, but his mother, Kate, refuses to accept his loss and clings to the belief he will someday return. Chris has been eyeing Ann Deever, his older brother’s pretty fiancée (Heather Kenzie), and apparently she is ready to return the ogling. Also, there remains the ashes of a scandal in which the company allowed some defective parts to be shipped to the Army, where they ended up on a bunch of P-40 fighter planes and dozens of men crashed and lost their lives as a result. Joe escaped the blame, but Ann’s father went to prison, where he still remains as the play opens.
   Director Samuel Wright paces the evening beautifully, taking his time in establishing the scene, introducing each character carefully and allowing the tensions to build naturally. He gets standout performances from Ms. Kenzie and Mr. Christian, and a riveting scene from Perry Ojeda, as Ann’s older brother, who appears in the second act (of three). Mr. Wright also has provided the serviceable set design of the Keller backyard. The apple tree that the playwright specified as being split by lightning just before the story begins has been reduced to a flowering bush, blown away by a wind gust, but it is of very small consequence. Miller’s characters remain vivid, if dysfunctional, and his words still sear decades later.
   It’s a real pleasure to welcome a new theater company to the area, especially one with so much promise.
All My Sons continues at Crossroads Theater, 7 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, through April 24. Performances: Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2, 8 p.m.; Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $45, $15 students. For information, call (732) 246-7469. On the Web: www.statetheatrenj.org