The third act of “All My Sons” is explosive. Actors Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jésus (a married couple in real life as well as in the play) are firing on all cylinders. Actually De Jésus has been doing so throughout the entire play; her arrival toward the middle of an otherwise stilted first act is electrifying.
Back in 1947, when Arthur Miller’s play was first performed, two and a half hours, three acts and a few unnecessary characters were de rigueur.
These days, for various reasons, audience expectations and perhaps tolerance levels have changed.
In that problematic first act, Joe Keller (Smits, overacting a bit early on in the play) is chatting in his backyard with two neighbors (the aforementioned not-really-necessary characters) and a hyper-active neighborhood kid. An overnight rainstorm that knocked down a tree in the Keller yard has presaged the upcoming family storm that will change everything.
When Keller’s live-in son, Chris, appears (Alejandro Hernandez, who grows quite convincingly into his important role as the play continues), we learn a lot about the family’s circumstances: how the other Keller son, Larry, died in the war; how Joe’s wife, Kate (De Jésus), refuses to believe he’s dead; how Chris now wants to marry Larry’s fiancée, Ann (Mayaa Boateng); how Joe, who owns a company that manufactures airplane parts, was arrested and jailed for having shipped defective parts overseas, resulting in the death of several dozen men; how he was later exonerated; how his business partner — Ann’s father — was left behind in prison.
The details of these tragedies are hashed and re-hashed over the course of the play, with new information and understanding (among the characters and for us, the audience) emerging bit by bit right up to the climactic, emotionally devastating finale. (An especially effective performance by Brandon Gill as Ann’s brother enriches the plot.)
Messages that transcend tragedy
Miller was examining big moral issues through the details of the tragedy that tears apart the Keller family: What is the price to be paid for striving toward the American dream? (Joe Keller’s eyes have always been fixated on the economic prize for his family). To whom in this world are we responsible? What do we owe our community, our country? By the time the play ends, we feel the pain of just about every character, including the doctor who lives next door (played by Cassidy Brown) and his bitter wife, Sue (Elissa Beth Stebbins in a nuanced portrait).
As too-talky as the play is, and how slow to dig into its own depths, “All My Sons” is nevertheless deeply involving, and this Berkeley Repertory Theatre production, directed by Berkeley Rep associate artistic director David Mendizábal, goes the distance. Mendizábal cast Black and Latino actors in order to expand the issues involved and explore the characters’ place in American society from a new perspective (Miller was careful to avoid any references to his characters’ ethnicities), but the truth is, the issues in the play are strong enough to overshadow that directorial effort.
And designer Anna Luizos’s set — the exterior of a wood frame house, complete with screened-in porch, patio, yard full of trees, flowers and plants, wicker rocking chair and more — fits the dimensions of the stage so perfectly that you’re likely to feel yourself within the action, no matter your perspective.
It’s in observing the various characters’ reactions to their deepening understandings, especially acutely observed in the conflict between father Joe (it’s in those scenes that Smits shines) and son Chris, that the play truly lives. There, and in every moment of De Jésus’s heartbreaking performance.
Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s “All My Sons” continues through March 29 at the Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $67 to $215 at berkeleyrep.org.
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