Bryan Cranston & Marianne Jean-Baptiste star in Ivo Van Hove’s production of Arthur Miller’s play.
Broadway World: ***** “It’s a quiet, timely, still production. It burns slowly, almost imperceptibly at the start, before it explodes and shatters into a million breathless pieces. Van Hove singularly removes it from its specific time period.”
London Theatre.co.uk: **** “The show runs straight through for over two hours in a gruelling unravelling, as the characters probe and push until the horrid, unsettling truth finally rears its head. The dense text and static staging don’t make things easy for the audience, but the pay-off in the play’s denouement is worth it.”
The Guardian: ***** “Every scene is strong, no actor stealing the show, each raising the power of the ensemble as a whole. There is so much alchemy here – it just dazzles and dazzles.”
Time Out: ***** “Cranston is superb as a grandfatherly figure who believes he has squared his past actions with himself, because he’s a pragmatist, a capitalist and because he thinks what he did was in line with the American Dream. But at the very end he is almost physically stunned to discover that he does care – the revelation rips him to shred before our eyes. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is exquisite as Kate Keller: a tough, no nonsense woman for whom the death of her son Larry has become an achilles heel, a point of vulnerability in an otherwise steely character.”
The Independent: ***** “Bryan Cranston is magnetic in this masterful staging of Arthur Miller’s tragedy.”
The Standard: ***** “Perhaps Miller is his touchstone, the writer’s apparent naturalism somehow sparking with his stark and dynamic stage techniques, which here include a menacing soundtrack of strings, metronomic ticking and Johnny Cash, and moments of sudden floodlighting. In this All My Sons, we see a great writer, a visionary director and a superlative cast all chiming in harmony.”
London Theatre Reviews.co.uk: **** “Despite a slow start, director Ivo Van Hove has created a stunning piece of theatre. The themes of guilt and responsibility are handled beautifully, and seeing this incredible cast interact live is worth the ticket price alone. It is a powerful, moving night out that reminds us why Arthur Miller is a legend.”
WhatsOnStage: **** “Van Hove focuses with laser-like intensity on the relationship between father and son. In the early scenes, when Joe seems like a popular, regular guy, Cranston has a vaguely rumpled quality, a sense of understanding everyone’s problems. He mock-wrestles with Essiedu as they confront one another over Colin’s plans; there is a palpable sense of affection between them. As the stage and the story darken, they square up face to face, locked in a combat that will undo them both.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “For the most part, van Hove stands back and lets his actors do the heavy lifting, which is a sign of a master director who understands exactly how to serve a text. The odd flourish serves either as audience relief (it’s fun to see Essiedu attack the tree with a chain saw), or to underpin the play’s moral warning, which can only reverberate in a Trumpian world where both domestic and foreign policy are part of “the deal.” So, when Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” plays during a curtain change, there’s at least a little hope of some real-world justice.”
The Stage: **** “Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste star in a shattering take on the Miller tragedy.”
All That Dazzles: ***** “Van Hove’s production feels fresh and exciting while simultaneously staying true to the essence of the story.”
The Reviews Hub: **** “van Hove has rejected many of the techniques for which he has come under fire in recent years, and there is not a camera in sight, although Jan Versweyveld’s representative set, cluttered by the broken tree, suffers from being not quite fully staged but also not enough of a blank canvas, although, as ever, his cinematic lighting is masterful. However, the ambiguous set never stands in the way of the performances that grow naturalistically and become ever more consumed as the stakes rise.”
The Telegraph: **** “Cranston leads a superb cast in this powerful staging of Arthur Miller’s 1947 drama All My Sons.”
All My Sons continues to play until the 7th March. To book tickets click here.