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ALL MY SONS: NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE

A, 2026, 146 minutes, Colour.

Brian Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Paapa Essiedu, Tom Glynn-Carney, Aliyah Odoffin, Cath Whitefield, Richard Hansell, Zach Wyatt, Charles Dark.

Directed by Ivo van Hove

This is the second National theatre live production of Arthur Miller’s 1947 play, All My Sons. The previous version, 2019, featured Sally field and Bill Pullman.

This time Brian Cranston, who established his reputation with television, Breaking Bad, and many film roles, plays Joe Keller, the ordinary American, manager of a plant during World War II, experiencing a cover up any inadequate product leading to the death of 21 pilots and his spending time in jail, his partner still in jail. This 2026 version features interracial marriage with Marianne Jean-Baptiste powerfully playing his wife, mourning the death of her son believing he will return, with a hold over her husband.

The other central character is the surviving son, Chris, played by Paapa Essidu (including a ring in his ear). This is a man of integrity, love and his father, believing the best, urging all those he knows to be at their best. Hayley Squires is the girlfriend of the deceased brother, but in love with Chris, waiting for his call, now visiting, separated from her father, Joe Keller’s partner, who is in jail. There is also her brother who resents the father, Tom Glynn-Carney, who visits his father and learns his version of what happened.

Other characters include the neighbours, an idealistic doctor who served in war, his money-preoccupied wife, the neighbours on the other side, the wife and daughters, the husband preoccupied with horoscopes, trying to prove that the alleged day of death of the older son was in fact a lucky day and he could not have died.

The set is very simple, rather dark, outside the entry to the house, at the opening, a tree falling to the ground during a storm, it remaining there as a large log, which means that the actors have to be walking around the log or walking over it, more than a touch distracting at times. There is also a huge circle above the door, like the sun or full moon, a light, and some of the characters passing by and the climactic event happening there.

The film shows Joe Keller, amiable, with the neighbours, supporting his surviving son who works in the company, strong relationship with his wife. The tension is with Ann, the older brother’s girlfriend arriving, the mother not wanting to hear of the death of her son, and in love with Chris and vice versa.

There are no intervals, only brief music (with music by Johnny Cash and Leonard Coen). There is a highly emotional scenes, especially with the mother, finally building up to the revelation of the letter by the older son written on the day that he died, knowing the truth about what his father had done. The mother is overwhelmed, so is Chris, his ideals shattered, questioning the possibility for his future – and the challenge of his judgement on his father.

His father’s final argument is family is more important, love for his sons, living with failure, but money and security being most important. When this is shattered, Joe weeping, beginning to face the truth, he makes his fatal decision.

All My Sons is to be seen in the context of Miller's following play, The Death of a Salesman, and the issues of race in A View from the Bridge. Miller is writing about ordinary Americans and families, the aftermath of World War II, the generation of fathers, their characters, work, family relationships, especially to their sons.