{"id":3397,"date":"2010-09-18T16:37:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T20:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=3397"},"modified":"2010-09-18T20:40:26","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T00:40:26","slug":"%e2%80%9cbut-i-think-to-him-they-were-all-my-sons-and-i-guess-they-were-%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2010\/09\/%e2%80%9cbut-i-think-to-him-they-were-all-my-sons-and-i-guess-they-were-%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBut I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All My Sons <\/a><\/em>Poster for the Apollo Theatre<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday evening I went to see Arthur Miller\u2019s play All My Sons<\/a><\/em> at the Apollo Theatre. Not to boast too much\u2014I\u2019m sure most people are tired of hearing about it\u2014but three others and I purchased box seats in the theatre for only \u00a310 each. We had to wake up early to queue for two hours in the bitter cold before the box office opened at 10am. It was definitely well worth feeling frozen for the rest of the day in order to see the play that evening.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m familiar with two of Arthur Miller<\/a>\u2019s other plays, Death of a Salesman<\/em> and The Crucible<\/em>, but knew nothing whatsoever about All My Sons<\/em>. The play itself was very enjoyable\u2014natural, uncomplicated lines presented by seemingly simple characters. Without examining the acting itself, the play\u2019s deeper meanings and the presentation and development of them was brilliant. However, I\u2019m no qualified theatre critic, so I\u2019ll stick to sharing my reaction to the adaptation I saw.<\/p>\n

The Apollo Theatre<\/a> itself is a \u201cGrade II listed West End Theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster\u201d and was built in 1901 (cited in above link). It\u2019s a traditional theatre in that it has a large main stage with a cozy gallery of seats located on its ground floor, two upper balconies and side box seats. The audience for Thursday\u2019s performance was mature. I would say most of the viewers were in their sixties. Us four Dickinsonians were definitely the youngest box seat ticket holders. The playwright Arthur Miller was, after all, very popular throughout the 1940s, \u201850s, and early \u201860s, so the maturity of the audience made sense.<\/p>\n

In regards to where I sat in the theatre, the box felt like it was almost hovering over the stage. My view was somewhat restricted, but never before did I have the opportunity to see the actors\u2019 facial expressions and gesticulations in such detail! Moreover, the setting\u2014which included a real grass floor, an abundance of vegetation, and the front of a country house\u2014could also be seen in great detail. Altogether, I was able to watch an incredible play and<\/em> truly be a part of the scene.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Main cast members of Arthur Miller’s Play<\/a><\/p>\n

In All My Sons<\/em> I was blown away by the two main actors\u2019 performances. David Suchet<\/a>\u2019s reenactment of Joe and Zo\u00eb Wanamaker<\/a>\u2019s interpretation of Kate were absolutely extraordinary. For one, Suchet portrayed Joe\u2019s sudden emotional changes flawlessly and with ease. One moment he could be furious, the mood convincingly illustrated in every corporeal and facial expression, and suddenly he would become vulnerable and distraught with tears streaming down his face. To me, the only negative aspects of the show were: the supporting cast\u2019s American accents slipping at times (something I actually found amusing) and the set\u2019s peculiar depiction of the Ohio countryside as looking more like the Louisiana bayou.<\/p>\n

In the end though, All My Sons<\/em> far exceeded the other theatre productions I\u2019ve seen in London. Shakespeare\u2019s Merry Wives of Windsor <\/em>is still a favourite, especially since it was my first experience in the Globe Theatre. Bedlam, <\/em>also in the Globe, was enjoyable only because of the jokes I shared with fellow classmates afterwards. I did love Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> with its brilliant lighting, impressive set design, and \u00c9ponine\u2019s angelic voice, but I wasn\u2019t blown away by the performance (it did not help that my seat was in the uppermost balcony). 39 Steps<\/em> was innovative and entertaining, but I found the slapstick humour dull after a while. The Habit of Art<\/em> forced me to consider deeper, more intellectual ideas but was not the most well written play, I think. All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed my theatre experience in London\u2014although I would love to see some dance while I\u2019m still here in England\u2014and have appreciated every play and musical I have seen thus far.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t see All My Sons<\/em> yet, please do, and share your thoughts!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick and Matt at the play\u00a0All My Sons <\/em>(personal photo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All My Sons Poster for the Apollo Theatre On Thursday evening I went to see Arthur Miller\u2019s play All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre. Not to boast too much\u2014I\u2019m sure most people are tired of hearing about it\u2014but three others and I purchased box seats in the theatre for only \u00a310 each. We had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6675,78],"tags":[15150,15148,15149,1335,15238],"class_list":["post-3397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-maryc","category-theatre","tag-all-my-sons","tag-apollo","tag-arthur-miller","tag-plays","tag-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}