Theater Review: Miller play well served at Bus Barn in Los Altos

By BRYAN WIGGIN

Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos generally does well with naturalistic plays, and they are currently offering a commendable production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons."

The play presents a couple of recurring Miller themes: the relationship between father and sons, and the corrupting influence of business, of making a buck. In this play, making a buck is a form of war profiteering.

During World War II, Joe Keller's machine plant did well by selling to the War Department. But his family did not survive the war unscarred, for his eldest son, Larry, was reported missing in action.

Three years after the war is over, Larry's mother, Kate, refuses to believe that he is dead; she doesn't want her husband or her other son, Chris, to believe it, either. But Chris is sufficiently far from his mother's pathological denial that he hopes to marry Ann Deever, whom Kate insists is still "Larry's girl."

Ann moved to New York after her father, Joe's partner, was convicted of selling defective cylinder heads, a sale that caused the death of 21 American flyers. At Chris's invitation she has come home, and the two quite touchingly declare their love for each other.

But old ghosts are not at rest. Though he was exonerated, many believe that Joe was the one responsible for the corrupt sale. Though denying culpability, Joe in effect defends the sale, saying "That's the business."

Matters are brought to a head by the sudden visit of Ann's brother, George. Both siblings have refused any contact with their imprisoned father, but after finally visiting him, George has become convinced of Joe's guilt.

He tries to force Ann to leave Chris, but she is steadfast, and it is her determination to make a life with Chris, regardless of the past and who is or is not responsible for it, and to tell the truth about Larry's death, that precipitates the plays very dramatic crisis and denouement.

Director Hunt Burdick draws respectable performances from his cast, and no one lets the team down. The performance I saw felt a little tentative in the first half, as though more rehearsal was needed to make the actors comfortable in their roles and to smooth the interactions among them. But the second half was better, and the climax had considerable power.

Frank Diamanti is in his element as Joe, the common man who's carved out his place in life through hard work and common sense. There are moments, though, when his shouting is too loud for the theater: some modulation is needed.

Joan Hunt Burdick is good as Kate, making her a somewhat foolish woman who has teeth of steel when fighting to keep her disintegrating family together.

Brian Ruf is a likeable, good-natured Chris who has depths and passion when events elicit them. There is strength, as well, in Miriam Wren Malvino's slender, pretty Ann, and Ted D'Agostino is a fiery, headstrong George. Jim Johnson is good as the thoughtful, melancholy doctor who lives next door, as is Kelly Hudson as his overbearing wife.

The set design of Marcia Frederick is beautiful, with an American bungalow's back porch and arbor, and is so devoted to reality that it has real gravel on the garden path.

Bus Barn Stage Company may have done better work in some previous productions -- the recent "Crimes Of The Heart" was one to cherish -- but they've done good work here, and it's well worth seeing.

PERFORMANCES: "All My Sons," by Arthur Miller, is being presented at the Bus Barn Stage Company in Los Altos through April 25. For information, call 941-0551.