Theatre Intime’s production of “All My Sons” begins with a series of cross-cuts: A rocking chair in a quaint Midwestern home, white steel lawn chairs, and a tree with fallen apples scattered beneath. A flickering blue light, rain pattering. Lights off, then on. The rain roars. The blue light flicks in and out. A moment later, thunder roars and flashes of light explode from either side of the stage. Lights off.
The result: The scene re-illuminates with businessman Joe Keller, played by Joe McLean ’27, smoking a cigar and reading the morning paper, the audience watching rapt.
“All My Sons,” written by the renowned Arthur Miller (“The Crucible”), tells the story of a middle-class family living at ease in the blissful countryside. It has been three years since Larry Keller, a World War II soldier, went missing. His mother, Kate, still desperately hopes for his return despite all odds. When Larry’s memorial tree is struck down in a thunderstorm at the start of the play, his disappearance while flying a warplane returns to the forefront of the family’s minds. With the arrival of childhood family friend Ann Deveer, father Joe Keller’s lies come to surface, and the life he built for his family comes crashing down.
Social tension pervades the play. Moments of silence or characters’ sudden departures from scenes towards the beginning foreshadow the heavier tension that would come to rack the family, leading to the loss of many lives and the demise of those closest to them.
It felt like a performance within a performance: The actors portrayed characters who were themselves acting. The characters lied and struggled against truths they knew to be irrefutable. The actors did a wonderful job rendering this dichotomy, from fiddling with set pieces or standing awkwardly center stage.
Theater Intime’s production was brought to life by Christie Davis ’27, returning to direct another play at the venue.
Davis is a former Opinion writer for The Daily Princetonian.
“The authorities in our lives, whether they be parental or systemic,” are often flawed, Davis told me, leaving us to make “decisions about how we engage with the world.” This play zooms into parental systems, asking if our parents are just as flawed and fallible as any other person.
Through Miller’s subtle dialogue and abrupt twists, the audience learns how Joe Keller’s greed led to terrible repercussions and how he painted over it all to provide for his family. The play sets up Joe Keller as a man of the military-industrial complex and an emblem of the American Dream, and critiques the U.S. World War II era by portraying his downfall.
The performances are striking, with McLean and Will Grimes ’27 playing oppositional characters with dynamism and motive. McLean as the brooding Joe Keller stunned the audience with his masterful portrayal of the family patriarch. Whether he stormed the stage in fury as his lies were unearthed or simply entered the scene to sit in a chair, McLean brought a ghostly reality to this work of fiction. As the play progressed, I forgot he was a Princeton student as he lost himself in the role.
Son Chris Keller, portrayed by Grimes, made the audience laugh with his dead-pan humor and watch anxiously as he unraveled his father’s lies. As he investigated his family’s past, he became a steady perspective through which the audience could view this complex work, and its wide-spanning implications of American capitalism and morality.
Although many of the laughs and the insightful dialogue were a result of thoughtful choices made in 1946 as Miller was writing, rather than those in 2025, the liberties taken from the original script also shone through.
The setting of "All My Sons"
Zane Mills Vanwicklen / The Daily Princetonian
Notably, the upper-frame of the house lifts on one side at the end of Act One, creating a lopsided effect. When the frame is down, Davis told me, it shows that the characters are pretending that nothing is wrong, and that when it is lifted, “we’re seeing things as they actually are.” This marked a refreshing deviation from the well-worn playbook, bringing life to this famous play.
The show received a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience.
“I’ve seen a lot of really great stuff at Princeton, but I thought this was particularly really great,” said Jack Goodman ’27, one of the dozens of students who packed the theater.
Zane Mills VanWicklen is a contributing writer for The Prospect and a member of the Class of 2029. He can be reached at zm6261@princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.
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