Bryan Cranston stars in drama of the year
Wyndham’s Theatre
Director Ivo van Hove and his designer Jan Versweyveld first made their names in the UK with their stripped down production of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge at the Young Vic in 2014. They’re back with a West End production of the same playwright’s All My Sons, returning to the same less-is-more treatment. The critics loved it. It’s one of the all time great plays, which helps, but they loved the cast- Bryan Cranston, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Paapa Essiedu and more, and the way the director and designer did enough (but not too much) to bring out the play’s human dilemma of whether to sacrifice morals for self interest.
[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]
5 stars ★★★★★
The Guardian’s Arifa Akbar wrote a rave review. She praised van Hove for ‘letting the cast (and what a cast this is) just inhabit their parts but somehow become them as if by magic. They articulate the devastating truths in this play about the corruptions of the American dream and the toxic inheritance handed down from fathers to sons’. She observed: ‘There is a Sophoclean examination of the family, what it means for a son to inherit a father’s crimes, and the production lays out the psychology of blame, guilt and complicity in an incredibly full-bodied and clarifying way.’ She noted it ‘is a rare thing to see a group of actors quite this brilliant gel so completely (…) Every scene is strong, no actor stealing the show, each raising the power of the ensemble as a whole.
‘Calling it ‘an astonishing, deeply moving piece of theatre’, The Standard’s Nick Curtis said: ‘Bryan Cranston and Marianne Jean-Baptiste deliver near pitch perfect performances‘.
Time Out’s Andrzej Lukowski declared: ‘Bryan Cranston and Paapa Essiedu …offer two of the best stage performances of 2025.’ The key to the production was: ‘what van Hove has done is discretely uncouple Miller’s play from the naturalism that often stifles it (…) (his) production really savours the writing.
Cindy Marcolina of BroadwayWorld declared: ‘Each element of the mise-en-scène works perfectly in tune with the other, delivering a simply arresting theatrical event. Van Hove adds even more misanthropy to Miller’s already bleak point of view, exacerbating the significance of Joe’s choices. He cowardly picked money over people’s safety, capitalism over life, ego over justice: it’s as contemporary as it gets. But the intent doesn’t overshadow the humanity in it. He keeps the piece strongly fixed in its genre. It can be a tragic realist drama’.
Annabel Nugent in The Independent noted: ‘Van Hove manages something ingenious here, creating a version of suburban American that’s abstract and epic – while still humming with the sense of a local community that bustles into the backyard for tense little exchanges or leisurely card games. When this story’s tragedy reaches its full force, that thrum of gossip becomes a nightmarish mosquito whine. Joe hasn’t just displeased his community; he’s angered the old gods, and his downfall is absolute.’
The i’s Fiona Mountford stated: ‘playing now at just over two hours without interval, All My Sons assumes the grim yet towering momentum, inexorability and universality of a Greek tragedy (…) I have quite simply never seen a better production of this play.’
4 stars ★★★★
WhatsOnStage’s Sarah Crompton described van Hove’s ‘remarkable ability to crank up tension, to pull the relationships in the Keller family to taut breaking point and to orchestrate the results.’ She praised the design: ‘Jan Versweyveld’s set and lighting design are stark, brown, scuffed. This is not the usual suburban house but an expressionistic wasteland’. She loved the cast: ‘Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives ‘an utterly devastating performance of quiet despair and willed intent’ and ‘Essiedu is simply superb, leaning into Colin’s essential goodness, his trust in a world that is about to be destroyed.’
The Times’ Clive Davis said it was ‘a clear-sighted yet full-blooded reading of one of the most perfectly plotted dramas (with echoes of Ibsen and the ancient Greeks) you will ever see.’ He praised the stars: ‘Cranston gives a masterclass in fusing an easy exterior with a roiling interior’. But, ‘Good as everyone is here, it’s Paapa Essiedu … you walk out talking about. His ascent from affable shrugs to righteous rants is plausible, compelling, freshly minted.’ He concluded: ‘this is a seriously good play, seriously well acted, seriously well staged.’
The Stage’s Sam Marlowe found von Hove’s staging ‘shot through with a profound disgust for the jettisoning of morals and common humanity in the pursuit of the mighty dollar. As it builds towards a frenzy of anguish over more than two interval-free hours, you can’t help but sense a boiling anger at the current US administration.’ She had a reservation: ‘Von Hove directs with his habitual expressionistic flourishes, some of which are a touch heavy-handed’. She ended: ‘As we watch them all rip themselves and each other apart on a stage littered with red autumn leaves that irresistibly recall memorial poppy fields, this brutal dismantling of the American dream feels more pertinent than ever.’
For The Mail’s Patrick Marmion, it was a ‘harrowing journey into guilt-racked despair’.
Dominic Cavendish in the Telegraph thought: ‘the virtue of this production is… its spare focus’. He had one niggle: ‘With performances this strong, and a tragic climax so potent, the cinematic incidental music that plays beneath the dialogue feels like an unnecessary emotional nudge. Van Hove’s “less is more” approach works well; even less would work even better.’
Critics’ Average Rating 4.5★
Value rating 45 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)
All My Sons can be seen at Wyndham’s Theatre until 7 March 2026.Buy tickets directly at allmysonsplay.com
Click here to read Paul Seven’s review of All My Sons
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