HPU theater director Joyce Maltby recently announced the cast for the University’s fall production of Arthur Miller’s mid-20th century tragedy All My Sons, another in the schools continuing presentation of American classics.

Miller, one of America’s greatest playwrights, wrote All My Sons in 1947. The play won the Drama Critics Award for the best new American play that year.

An explosive family drama, All My Sons explores the trials faced by a family during wartime, when moral questions become blurred, and the smallest decisions can lead to catastrophe.

Miller puts a young man, Chris Keller, played by Eric C. Field, into a confrontation with his father, Joe Keller, played by Jim Tharp.

Keller senior ran a factory that manufactured airplane engines for wartime use. Some of the engines proved defective, and may have been responsible for the deaths of a number of U.S. pilots, including Chris’ older brother. Joe Keller and his partner, the father of Chris’ fiancé, Ann Deever, played by Carla Rzeszewski, were tried for fraud and manslaughter. Deever was imprisioned but Joe was acquitted.

Chris Keller, who has just returned from action in World War II, has invited Ann Deever to visit the family so that they can announce their engagement. Her visit sparks a foundation-shaking series of conversations between Joe and Chris and Ann’s brother George, played by Chris Veatch, that brings out the truth of Joe Keller’s involvement in the defective engines.

In the tradition of great drama, Miller’s play wrestles with major issues of social responsibility and morality, and the outcome has consequences for the whole cast, which also includes Jo Pruden as Kate Keller, Peter Bunn as Dr. Jim Bayliss, Carolyn Cameron as Sue Bayliss, Todd Evans as Frank Lubey, Kayce Erwin as Lydia Lubey and Micky Graue as Bert.

All My Sons opens Nov. 7 and continues through Dec. 7 at the HPU Theatre, third floor of the Academic Center on the Hawai‘i Loa campus. HPU student admission is $3, and reservations are recommended. Call 375-1282.