David Suchet and Zoe Wanamaker are to lead the cast of a new production of All My Sons, which will play at London’s Apollo theatre next summer.
Arthur Miller’s play, which will be directed by Howard Davies, will run from 19 May to 11 September at the Shaftesbury Avenue venue.
All My Sons, Miller’s first big success, finds Suchet playing Joe Keller, a man alleged to have supplied defective engines to World War II fighter planes, leading to the deaths of innocent pilots. One such pilot is Keller’s own son, thought to have died in action. His mother (Wanamaker) can’t accept his death or the fact that his fiancée has switched her affections to one of his siblings. The confrontations that occur within the strained Keller family unearth a buried family secret.
Director Davies won a Laurence Olivier Award for his previous 2000 production of All My Sons, which was staged at the National Theatre, where Wanamaker has recently appeared in productions including Much Ado About Nothing, The Rose Tattoo and His Girl Friday. Also a Laurence Olivier Award winner – for Electra at the Donmar Warehouse – Wanamaker has also worked extensively on screen, most prominently in the Harry Potter films and in long running BBC sitcom My Family.
Suchet may also be best known for a long running screen role; for two decades he has played Agatha Christie’s moustachioed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Away from the famous sleuth, he won an International Emmy Award in 2008 for his portrayal of Robert Maxwell in Maxwell. On the London stage, Suchet has most recently been seen in Complicit (Old Vic), Once In A Lifetime (National Theatre) and The Last Confession (Theatre Royal, Haymarket).
The Apollo theatre is currently hosting the West End run of stand up comedian Dylan Moran, which is followed in December by The Dark Angel, a season from theatrical chanteuse Camille O’Sullivan, and daytime productions of children’s favourite The Gruffalo. Prior to All My Sons opening, the hit Royal Court production of Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem plays at the venue.
MA