A POSTWAR MORAL RECKONING
INSIDE A FAMILY HOME

Arthur Miller’s classic still asks uncomfortable
questions about responsibility and denial

Jimmy Smits

Berkeley Repertory Theatre is reviving Arthur Miller’s 1947 postwar classic All My Sons, a heavy family drama whose themes of duty, guilt, and moral responsibility still resonate today.

We meet the Keller family: Joe, the father (Jimmy Smits); mother Kate (Wanda De Jesús, Smits’s real-life spouse); and their adult son Chris (Alejandro Hernandez). Their other son, Larry, has been listed as MIA for three years, and Kate clings fiercely to the belief that he is still alive.

Osiezhe Gboligi-John Gregory Bramah, Alejandro Hernandez, and Jimmy Smits

In Miller’s original text, the family is white. For this 2026 production, director David Mendizabal reimagines the Kellers as Puerto Rican, while keeping the action firmly set in 1947. Mendizabal’s choice to portray the Kellers as such underscores the play’s engagement with the American Dream and the belief that success in the United States is available to anyone. In the postwar period, thousands of Puerto Ricans migrated to the mainland, adding historical resonance to this interpretation.

Jimmy Smits and Alejandro Hernandez

All of the action takes place in the Kellers’ comfortable suburban home and backyard. As the play opens, two years after World War II, life has returned to a semblance of normalcy for the family and their neighbors. Joe owns a successful manufacturing plant that produces metal parts for machinery; during the war, the factory made airplane components for military aircraft. Chris now works alongside his father, with the unspoken understanding that he will one day take over the business.

Wanda De Jesús and MaYaa Boateng

Chris has decided it is time to reconnect with Ann Deever (MaYaa Boateng), a former neighbor—and more significantly, his late brother’s fiancée. When Ann arrives, sparks fly between the two, but they are careful around Chris’s parents. Ann’s father was Joe’s former business partner and is currently in prison. Toward the end of the war, defective parts from Joe’s factory were installed in military planes, leading to fatal crashes that killed multiple pilots, including Chris’s fellow soldiers. Ann’s father was found to be at fault, though rumors and lingering doubts persist about who was truly responsible.

Chris and Ann’s renewed relationship—and the possibility of marriage—stirs up unresolved tensions on all sides.

MaYaa Boateng, Alejandro Hernandez

Joe insists that Chris’s primary responsibility is to his family. Kate views the relationship as a betrayal of Larry’s memory. Ann, meanwhile, has harbored feelings for Chris ever since Larry went missing. Matters intensify when Ann’s brother George Deever (Brandon Gill) arrives after visiting their father in prison. George warns his sister that everything may not be as it seems and urges her to consider whether their father was framed to take the fall for the faulty parts. What follows is a series of increasingly heated confrontations, as each character argues their version of the truth.

Elissa Beth Stebbins and MaYaa Boateng

The neighbors on either side of the Kellers’ house love the family but struggle to remain neutral. Dr. Jim Bayliss (Cassidy Brown) and his wife Sue (Elissa Beth Stebbins) now live in the house where Ann and George grew up. On the other side are the Lubeys: Lydia Lubey (Regina Morones), once a pretty teenager and now a striking adult woman, and her none-too-bright husband Frank (Brady Morales-Woolery).

This three-act play is dense with dialogue, and intense emotions surface in nearly every scene. Each principal character holds a distinct interpretation of both past events and present consequences.

Brandon Gill, Alejandro Hernandez, and Jimmy Smits

Joe Keller continually reminds those around him of the sacrifices he claims to have made to provide a good life for his family. It’s a role built on authority and justification, and the arguments grow increasingly heated as the story unfolds.

The acting is strong across the board. Fans of Mr. Smits will not be disappointed by his commanding performance, and his scenes opposite Wanda De Jesús clearly benefit from the pair’s real-life partnership, lending their marital tension an added layer of credibility.

Wanda De Jesús, Alejandro Hernandez

Although he appears in only a handful of scenes, Brandon Gill makes a powerful impression as George Deever, delivering a performance that is both forceful and memorable.

As new information emerges, the stability of every relationship—and every moral certainty—begins to unravel.

MaYaa Boateng and Brandon Gill

Visually, the production lives up to Berkeley Rep’s reputation. The Kellers’ home and backyard are rendered by Anna Louizos in meticulous detail, from the back porch to the flower garden, trees, and fences, evoking a quintessential Midwestern suburb. Russell H. Champa’s lighting design—particularly the star-filled night sky—is quietly mesmerizing.

Brandon Gill, Wanda De Jesús, Alejandro Hernandez, and MaYaa Boateng

Arthur Miller’s family dramas invariably present moral dilemmas rooted in responsibility, guilt, and the tension between personal success and collective accountability. At two and a half hours, All My Sons rewards your time investment with a layered portrait of a family—and a nation—grappling with the cost of denial. There may be no easy answers and no universally happy ending, but this revival is well acted, thoughtfully staged, and worth the trip over the Golden Gate Bridge.

Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

photos by Kevin Berne

All My Sons
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison Street @ Shattuck
2 hours 45 minutes, including intermission
ends on March 29, 2026
for tickets, call 510.647.2949 or visit Berkeley Rep

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦