All My Sons

New City Players in South Florida

By: Aaron Krause - Feb 27, 2025

The opening scene of New City Players’ (NCP) first-rate professional production of Arthur Miller’s tragic masterpiece, All My Sons, is appropriately serene and laid back. In fact, it is so tranquil and warm that you expect to hear a sunny song such as Won’t You Be My Neighbor? from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Truly, the beginning of this fine production contrasts markedly from devastating scenes later in the play. That is when a discomfiting feeling suffuses you. Indeed, you long for the peaceful beginning. But in NCP’s Carbonell Award deserving production, by the time darkness has invaded the Keller household, that beginning seems like a distant memory.

In truth, All My Sons’ entire plot unfolds within 24 hours, in a single setting. The result is an elegantly structured, lean, yet riveting drama and tension as Miller reveals the family’s secrets over a single day. While a relatively short time elapses from beginning to end, the mood shifts subtly, almost unnoticeably.  Seeming contentment and informality give way to a disturbing, heart-shattering reality.

NCP’s production continues through March 9. The venue is Island City Stage’s intimate black-box theater in Wilton Manors. Due to the theater’s small size (it can seat about 60 patrons) emotions come across more powerfully. And performances can seem more real than they might in a much larger theater. In addition, you truly feel as though you are part of the action, not just a passive observer. Besides, this is a timely and timeless play. You want to lean forward and engage, rather than just sit back, relax, and enjoy.

NCP’s production runs roughly two-and-a-half hours. That includes a 15-minute intermission. Without question, NCP’s production features some of the finest acting you will witness on any stage. Under South Florida educator and theater artist Jason Peck’s expert direction, the action unfolds so fluidly and smoothly that the stage essentially disappears. Doubtless, you feel as though you are watching real, recognizable, flawed people in real time. They are conveying authentic, raw emotions.

The talented cast comprises Michael Gioia, Laura Turnbull, Timothy Mark Davis, Brandon Campbell, Caroline Tarantolo, Carlos Alayeto, Laura Argo, Juan Gamero, Kristi Rose Mills, and Desmond Sacks.

The performers deftly create distinct, well-drawn, relatable, and believable characters. In addition, they succeed admirably as a strong ensemble operating like a well-oiled machine. The performers not only speak their characters’ lines, they seem fully engaged. For example, they lean forward and seem to really listen to each other.

Also, behind the scenes artists do their part to bring the world of the play to believable life. The team of artists includes scenic designer Michael McClain, lighting designer Annabel Herrera, sound and projections designer Tyler Johson Grimes, costume designer Casey Sacco, fight choreographer Rachel Smoker Cox, intimacy choreographer Grace Cirillo, and Ali Tallman, costume assistant, and assistant director/dramaturg.

All My Sons takes place in an unidentified small American town. The time period is the 1940s following World War II.

During the war, Joe Keller and Steve Dever operated a machine shop that supplied airplane parts to the U.S. military effort. At some point, perhaps due to machine or human error, the company produced defective parts. Still, Keller decided to ship them, rather than admit the mistake and risk, perhaps, his business closing. If it did, Keller might not be able to provide for his family, and their American dream could collapse. But in his tunnel vision, Keller failed to account for others. They include the 21 pilots who were killed due to those faulty airplane parts in their aircraft. What is our responsibility not just to our loved ones, but to larger society, Miller asks us to consider.

While authorities arrested Keller and Dever, only the latter received a prison sentence. Keller walked away with barely a slap on the wrist and became wealthy.

Joe’s son, Larry, was among the young men flying aircraft during the war. He is missing and we do not learn the truth until almost the end. Joe’s wife, Kate, steadfastly clings to her belief that, while Larry is missing, he is alive. She cannot bare to think that he was among the young men killed. After all, if that were true, that could mean that his father caused his death. “Certain things have to be, and certain things can never be,” Kate says. “That’s why there’s God, so certain things can never happen. God does not let a son be killed by his father.”

Also, Kate cannot accept the fact that her other son, Chris, wishes to marry Ann Deaver, Steve’s daughter.  Ann had intended to marry Larry; she was and remains “Larry’s girl,” Kate maintains. After all, to Kate, allowing Chris to marry Ann is tantamount to admitting that Larry is likely dead.

But with Ann ready and willing to move on with her life, and Steve Dever’s son, George, soon to arrive at the Keller home after visiting his father in prison, All My Sons becomes a volcano that threatens to explode sooner or later.  Certainly, the explosion would include George, who is angry that Joe escaped punishment and became a wealthy man, while authorities sent Steve to prison. Of course, Chris is also part of this volatile situation. Himself a World War II veteran, the idealistic, morally responsible Chris has always believed that his father is innocent.

Davis, who is NCP’s producing artistic director, is also a talented, versatile actor. He seamlessly transitions from one emotion to another and has deservedly won praise for his naturalistic, intense, but not forced portrayals.

As Chris, Davis radiates convincing optimism, enthusiasm, and a zest for life. A fresh-faced, brightly smiling Davis, who is tall with blondish hair, imbues Chris with a purity that is refreshing. His eyes shine while his expressive voice conveys charm, energy, and vitality (picture a young, vibrant Tom Cruise). In addition, his chemistry with Tarantolo, who skillfully plays Ann, is strong and touching. You really feel as though you are watching and listening to two young lovebirds who have long been passionate about each other.

In a well-rounded performance, Davis, his face turning red at times and his mouth open in shock, also nails the horror, disbelief, and anger of an upstanding, passionate young man who has suddenly learned awful secrets about a dad he thought he knew well. But after the young man learns the truth, Chris, as Davis portrays him, looks at his father with raw emotional pain and bitterness in his facial expressions and voice. It is as though Chris is looking not at his father, but at a stranger who invaded his house at night and murdered his entire family. And you fear for Joe’s life as Chris, shouting in a thunderous rage at times, threateningly stands over his father, having pushed the older man (Gioia) to the ground. Will Chris injure or kill his dad, you wonder with concern.

From the moment Tarantolo’s Ann enters the stage, the performer exudes modesty, charm, and grace. You immediately understand why someone would fall in love with this young woman. With dark hair, glowing eyes, and red lipstick, Tarantolo, a versatile artist, projects purity. But the performer also lends her character resolve while remaining likable. And when Ann must reveal an awful truth, you clearly see the emotional pain in her face and hear the disappointment in her voice.

When we first see Gioia’s Joe Keller, at the beginning of the play, he looks content, calm, and dignified. With dark framed glasses perched on the tip of his nose, under a head of grey hair, he might call to mind a loving grandfather or a kindly uncle relaxing, reading the paper, and speaking affably with his neighbors and loved ones. Also, a twinkle lights up his face as he plays make believe with an 8-year-old neighbor named Bert (an eager and playful Sacks, a child actor impressively making his professional theater debut with an admirably natural performance). The game that Joe and the boy play carries a greater symbolic significance than you might initially think. In particular, the "hidden jail" in the game symbolizes the fact that Joe is hiding something

Your heart goes out to Joe as Gioia sensitively portrays him. He is hardly an evil man, and you know he did not mean to cause anyone’s death. In fact, Gioia makes Joe’s emotional pain and suffering palpable. We keenly sense his vulnerability and guilt feelings during key moments in the play. But as relatable as Gioia’s Joe is, he is not blameless. For instance, he can be proud and stubborn. Joe’s tragic flaw is that he has focused too much on his business and financial success – even at his conscience’s expense.

Gioia, a veteran actor, director, and playwright, creates a complex, sympathetic character, a flawed “common man” who comes to a painful realization at the end. The performer smiles sadly toward the end as he realizes aloud that Chris and Larry, as well as the pilots who were killed in their aircraft with defective parts, are “all my sons.”

While Joe is a complex character, so is Kate. She can be loving and devoted but also manipulative and in denial. Turnbull, an award-winning performer who has acted extensively in South Florida, in New York, and on tour, captures each of Kate’s many attributes with ease, segueing seamlessly from one to another. She can be adamant to a fault, but Turnbull’s Kate can also come across as a devoted wife and mother who would do anything for her loved ones. And just listen to the sweet and loving tone in which Turnbull’s Kate refers to George Deever as “Georgie.” You sense that her love for him goes back years.

Speaking of George, Campbell convincingly imbues him with anger, nervous energy, and an impulsive, impatient air. If Campbell’s George comes across as unlikable at times, we can certainly understand where he is coming from. Also, Campbell’s George can be sweet, particularly when he interacts with Kate.

Other cast standouts include Alayeto, with pipe in hand, as a compassionate Dr. Jim Bayliss, Gamero as an enthusiastic, eager to please Frank Lubey, Laura Argo as a sincere Sue Bayliss, and Mills as an easygoing and endearing Lydia Lubey.

Behind the scenes, McClain’s realistic set design of the Kellers’ backyard includes appropriate detail and suitable, inviting colors such as white and yellow. We sense that a well-to-do family lives here and the light colors accentuate the peacefulness that surrounds the home during the play’s opening scenes. The felled apple tree (wind blew it down during a storm) planted with the missing Larry Keller in mind is part of the rich symbolism with which Miller has written this classic play. Fruit appears not only right by the tree, but scattered apples dot different parts of the backyard. This can symbolize the idea that one’s actions can affect not only his immediate surroundings, but the wider world.

In the lighting department, Herrera’s design at the top of the play is appropriately bright and realistic. But as the production progresses, you may notice that the lighting slowly, almost imperceptibly, grows dimmer. This, of course, is proper, considering that the play grows progressively darker.

In the sound department, Grimes has created fittingly unsettling sounds that add greatly to the ambience. Grimes also created the projections that capture mood and period, especially at the beginning. In fact, before the production officially begins, a television news or advertising program from the period is playing. The production officially begins with a narrator talking about an unnamed small town. He sounds like the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s classic play, Our Town.

Sacco’s period costumes are light and dark, befitting the production’s contrasting moods.

With its rich symbolism, powerful exploration of complex, relevant themes, and well-drawn characters, All My Sons is an important part of the American theatrical cannon. Yes, you walk away sad at the tragic ending, but also in deep thought about your life and what we owe our fellow human beings. This is a rich, complex play. With each new viewing, you are bound to walk away with something new that you may have missed previously.

Miller (1915-2005) one of the most important figures in American theater, continues to be a treasure two decades after his death. In his work, he explores, among other things, social issues, personal responsibility, and the human condition with depth and sensitivity.

With its powerful production of All My Sons, NCP, a company that has made great strides over the years, can proudly proclaim that it has produced a work by Miller with skill and heart. Fortunately, as Davis has said, this will not be NCP’s last production of a Miller piece.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: New City Player’s production of Arthur Miller’s classic tragedy All My Sons.

WHEN: Through March 9. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, as well as 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to performances, NCP is offering “Weekend Wine Down,” complete with reflection conversation, and libations and Sunday talk-backs.

WHERE: Island City Stage’s black-box theater at 2304 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.

TICEKTS: Generally $40. Call (954) 376-6114 or go to www.newcityplayers.org.