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‘Ambitious’ set design leads to Curio’s ‘All My Sons’

A "very ambitious" set design has audience members walk through the homes of the families in Arthur Miller's classic play. Actor Paul Kuhn says it's a good play for right now, when so many people are acting as if they are "above consequences."

(Left to right:) Chase Byrd, Nastassja Baset, Trice Baldwin, and Paul Kuhn in "All My Sons," through Nov. 3 at Curio Theatre Company.
(Left to right:) Chase Byrd, Nastassja Baset, Trice Baldwin, and Paul Kuhn in "All My Sons," through Nov. 3 at Curio Theatre Company.Read moreRebecca Gudelunas

Paul Kuhn calls from Curio Theatre Company, where, wearing his hat as artistic director, he's putting the final touches on the set for Arthur Miller's All My Sons, kicking off Curio's season and running through Nov. 3. "It's very ambitious," he says. "We have two fully furnished houses in this show, and we are trying to get it so the audience walks through one of them, give them that neighborhood experience of overhearing what the neighbors say. One family, the Kellers, fool themselves into thinking they've rebuilt their damaged reputations, when their neighbors have known the truth for a long time."

Why All My Sons now? The answer is both political and not.

"This is a play about the consequences of our actions," says Kuhn, who also plays Joe Keller in All My Sons. "It's about having those consequences come back to us. Right now, with so many powerful people acting as if they're above consequences, it feels like we're all hanging, waiting for the end of something. I wanted a play in which we see someone commit a bad act that does come back and force a resolution." In his script, Miller writes that in terms of setting, "the time is now," which has required some updating. "We've given it a no-time, no-place, anytime feel," Kuhn says. "It's one of the greats. I've been sitting it on for years, and it seems like the time."