Standing ovations and five-star reviews marked out Talawa Theatre Company’s revival of Arthur Miller’s classic All My Sons when it was first performed in Manchester in 2013.

“I really enjoyed sitting in the audience and hearing a collective gasp at the final act, which was just fantastic,“ said Talawa’s artistic director, Michael Buffong, who also directs this production.

“The audience were completely in the story, wrapped up in it. They had an emotional contact which I never expected.“

All My Sons has now been revived for a national tour in the centenary year of Arthur Miller’s birth, and will be playing at Watford Palace Theatre next week.

Based on a true story, the play centres on an American family living in the Midwest a year or so after the end of World War Two.

Joe and Kate Keller are still grieving for the loss of their son, Larry, a pilot missing – presumed dead – during the war. But they have another son, Chris, and their lives seem comfortable and self-contained – until a series of revelations about Joe’s past brings their carefully constructed domestic world crashing down about their ears.

“All My Sons is fundamentally about a family living a big lie,“ said Michael, “and it’s about how this lie is suppressed and kept going and colluded with, and what it means to various members of the family and the neighbourhood. The themes it touches on are those of loyalty, guilt and betrayal; the big themes that affect us all.“

Michael believes that this ability of Miller’s, to hold the mirror up to ourselves, is what makes this play a classic.

When it first came out in 1947 Miller was on the verge of giving up as a playwright, but its huge success, in which he won his first Tony Award, encouraged him to continue and he subsequently became one of the great playwrights of the 20th Century.

“The play has a timeless universality to it,“ says Michael. “I think people will watch it and go, ‘Wow, that could be me and if that was me what would I do for my family?’ We all have families and understand how family dynamics work and I’m sure that in most families there are secrets that are kept. Because this is the question at the centre of the piece: would you do this for your family or do we have a greater responsibility to the world family? Are we concentrating on our own houses rather than our neighbourhoods?"

The backdrop of a recent war, and conflicting emotions about it, will be another reference point for today’s audiences, and it’s interesting to note that Miller’s criticism of the so-called ‘American Dream’ in the play indirectly led to him being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee a few years later.

“He challenges the notion of the American Dream and we have to ask ourselves: what is the cost of this dream and is it ultimately worth it, especially with these theatres of war currently playing out all over the world. You do start thinking, ‘What are we fighting for,’ or ‘What are we defending?’ You do realise that war is a business and that’s terrifying.“

  • Watford Palace Theatre, Clarendon Road, Watford from Tuesday, March 10 to Saturday, March 14 at 7.30pm, and on Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Details: 01923 225671, watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk

Jonathan Lovett