All My Sons

Arthur Miller

Jun 2022 · L.A. Theatre Works · Narrated by Julie Harris, James Farentino, and Full Cast

5.0

7 reviews

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1 hr 43 min

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About this audiobook

World War II is over and a family, mourning a son missing in action, plants a memorial tree and tries to go on with their lives. A storm blows down the tree and a devastating family secret is uprooted, setting the characters on a terrifying journey towards truth. Based upon a true story, All My Son is a classic drama by one of America’s greatest playwrights.

At the heart of All My Sons lies a scathing criticism of the American Dream. After its publication Arthur Miller was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he famously refused to give evidence against others.

Tony Award Winner for Best Author (1947)

AudioFile Magazine review: “One of the strengths of L.A. Theatre Works is their skill at selecting quality plays previously unavailable on audio. Arthur Miller’s 1947 breakthrough play is at once a postwar family drama, an indictment of false societal values and a searing tragedy. James Farentino plays businessman Joe Keller with a gruff bluster that sometimes masks a sacrificial love for his son Chris (Arye Gross), an idealist home from the war. Julie Harris, as the mother, Kate, is alternately needy, demanding, lovingly solicitous and willfully blind to the past. The live responses of the audience underscore the touches of humor that season the early acts of this landmark American drama.”

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring James Farentino, Arye Gross, Julie Harris, Mitchell Hebert, Naomi Jacobson, Barbara Klein, Paul Morella, Michaeleen O'Neil, Nathan Taylor and Jerry Whiddon.

Ratings and reviews

5.0

7 reviews

OTC Clancy

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December 12, 2018

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May 10, 2022

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About the author

The son of a well-to-do New York Jewish family, Miller graduated from high school and then went to work in a warehouse. He was born on October 17, 1915, in Harlem, New York City. His plays have been called "political," but he considers the areas of literature and politics to be quite separate and has said, "The only sure and valid aim---speaking of art as a weapon---is the humanizing of man." The recurring theme of all his plays is the relationship between a man's identity and the image that society demands of him. After two years, he entered the University of Michigan, where he soon started writing plays. All My Sons (1947), a Broadway success that won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1947, tells the story of a son, home from the war, who learns that his brother's death was due to defective airplane parts turned out by their profiteering father. Death of a Salesman (1949), Miller's experimental yet classical American tragedy, received both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1949. It is a poignant statement of a man facing himself and his failure. In The Crucible (1953), a play about bigotry in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, Miller brings into focus the social tragedy of a society gone mad, as well as the agony of a heroic individual. The play was generally considered to be a comment on the McCarthyism of its time. Miller himself appeared before the Congressional Un-American Activities Committee and steadfastly refused to involve his friends and associates when questioned about them. His screenplay for The Misfits (1961), from his short story, was written for his second wife, actress Marilyn Monroe (see Vol. 3); After the Fall (1964) has clear autobiographical overtones and involves the story of this ill-fated marriage as well as further dealing with Miller's experiences with McCarthyism. In the one-act Incident at Vichy (1964), a group of men are picked off the streets one morning during the Nazi occupation of France. The Price (1968) is a psychological drama concerning two brothers, one a police officer, one a wealthy surgeon, whose long-standing conflict is explored over the disposal of their father's furniture. The Creation of the World and Other Business (1973) is a retelling of the story of Genesis, attempted as a comedy. The American Clock (1980) explores the impact of the Depression on the nation and its individual citizens. Among Miller's most recent works is Danger: Memory! (1987), a study of two elderly friends. During the 1980s, almost all of Miller's plays were given major British revivals, and the playwright's work has been more popular in Britain than in the United States of late. Miller died of heart failure after a battle against cancer, pneumonia and congestive heart disease at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 89 years old.

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