“All My Sons”, a drama written by Arthur Miller, was simply perfected by the cast of the CPHS Theatre department. I enjoyed the way the actors portrayed and embraced their characters, and really brought out the emotion at the right moments, although I thought Miller’s plot was somewhat lacking because of the hanging ending, leaving lots of unanswered questions.
“All My Sons” is a story about the hardships of the Keller family in the 1940’s after World War II when only one of their sons comes back from the war. It also involves a forbidden love between old neighbors and a dispute over a shipment of plane parts that leads to a court case, ending with one man in jail and another keeping a dark secret that comes to light.
Mr. Aviles’ theatre tech classes did an excellent job putting together the set. They did an excellent job re-creating the Keller’s front yard, including the house and the furniture props.
“The hardest part of the play was that we only had six weeks to put it together, so it was hard to try to learn everything in such a short amount of time,” freshman Avery Phillips said.
Because of the short amount of preparation they had, and the inexperience of the freshman in high school theatre who participated in the play, I wasn’t expecting much, but it turned out to be really amazing and unexpectedly astounding.
My favorite characters in the play were Dr. Jim Bayliss, played by sophomore Chris Washington, because of his happy and supportive personality, and Bert, played by freshman Ayah Alomari, because of Bert’s peppy and adorable “little kid” attitude. The actors that played these parts stood out to me, because the way they portrayed their characters made me choose their characters as my favorites and also because of their excellent acting work.
“My character and I have a lot in common,” Phillips, who played Lydia Lubey, said. “We’re both really hyper and peppy.”
Look for more coming from the CPHS Theatre department, including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, premiering Friday, Nov.9 at 7:30 p.m. at The Curtain Theater. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.cphstheatre.com. The musical “Wand” will premier Thurs., Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the PAC.