All My Sons 1974 - Articles Page 97.8

Winner of the 1947 Tony Award for Best Play. During the war Joe Keller and Steve Deever ran a machine shop which made airplane parts. Deever was sent to prison because the firm turned out defective parts, causing the deaths of many men. Keller went free and made a lot of money. The twin shadows of this catastrophe and the fact that the young Keller son was reported missing during the war dominate the action. The love affair of Chris Keller and Ann Deever, the bitterness of George Deever returned from the war to find his father in prison and his father’s partner free, are all set in a structure of almost unbearable power. The climax showing the reaction of a son to his guilty father is fitting conclusion to a play electrifying in its intensity.



All My Sons won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and was recognized at the Tony Awards, winning both the Tony Award for Best Author for Arthur Miller and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.