Mike Fischer at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saw 10 shows and has ranked them, less as a reductive prescription than as an invitation to conversation.
1) Macbeth: “one’s deepest and darkest thoughts emerge into what little light there ever is; watching this world unfold, one feels an unsettling, primeval connection to characters who are both a millennium old (this production is set in eleventh-century Scotland) and a reflection of ourselves and our neighbors.”
2) All My Sons: “…marvel anew at how much his play still has to say to us and the way we live now…”
3) A Chorus Line: from the tryout at the top of the show to the symbolic, outward facing circle the ensemble creates near journey’s end, we’re reminded that “love’s what we’ll remember.”
4) Bunny: ” I’m not pulling punches when predicting a rousing success for this darkly funny and also wrenching account of a woman (beautifully played by Maev Beaty) in her late thirties, looking back on a lonely life in which her need to be needed results in numerous sexual relationships.”

The New York Times Charles Isherwood notes Stratford’s unique quality as “a town where actors can afford to live and raise children.”
Isherwood includes brief notes about a few shows, including:
“All My Sons” – Superlative
“Shakespeare in Love” – an ebullient crowd-pleaser
“Macbeth” -Ian Lake giving a galvanizing performance as an unusually young and sexually magnetic Macbeth.
“Night Music” was not a great production, unfortunately, but Cynthia Dale — a veteran of 13 seasons at Stratford — was marvelous in the smallish role of Charlotte.

It’s the American dream, slowly being burned from the inside out. The Kellers’ house is quaint, the family is friendly and the lawn is manicured – at first. Then, bit by bit, we see Arthur Miller’s darkness oozing out of this perfect picture until it’s all out in the open…. [Martha] Henry’s casting choices shake up typical expectations for “All My Sons” and give the play a contemporary layer, which I applaud.

All My Sons may bring us back to a very specific time and place in history, but the horrors of these characters’ realities and the decisions they make no doubt continue to ring true in our workaholic, success-obsessed society.

In a review that includes 5 shows Jones noted: The plays of Arthur Miller have been the subject of the darkest work of the past Broadway season — thanks to director Ivo van Hove, Miller masterpieces like “The Crucible” and “A View From the Bridge,” have been freed from their roots in American realism and turned into howling Greek-style tragedies chronicling the very same eternal human flaws that gave birth to the Brexit: pride, fear, nativism, the fear of the future, clinging to what little one has. At Stratford, director Martha Henry has created a riveting “All My Sons,” a production very much in conversation with van Hove’s Broadway work but beset by a tragedy of its own when its sound designer, Todd Charlton, died during rehearsals. At his funeral in April, his anguished colleagues played his deeply disquieting sound design for this very production, dominated by “Lilac Wine,” as performed by Nina Simone… I’ve seen “All My Sons” countless times, Katie Holmes and all. But I’ve never seen the weight of a man’s selfishness fall so heavily on a whole community, to so palpably come to resemble something so much bigger than the Kellers, who here feel like just another manifestation of the twisted sisters, found in every small town afraid of the other.

There was a time when Arthur Miller’s 1947 play, All My Sons, was undervalued, its reputation eclipsed by the subsequent triumphs of Death Of A Salesman and The Crucible. Perhaps today’s troubled times have contributed to its renewed stature…Henry’s production deftly explores the play’s familiar preoccupations — the nature of right and wrong and of guilt and innocence — but she also sees All My Sons as a mood piece about the gathering of darkness and the corruption of the American Dream.

Ziegler and Peacock, who generate incendiary chemistry on stage, anchor an ensemble without blemish or weakness. It’s festival ensemble work reminiscent of Henry and the late William Hutt in Diana Leblanc’s legendary production of A Long Day’s Journey Into Night…On a personal note: I have been reviewing Stratford productions since 1984. I remember when Peacock and Ziegler joined the festival’s Young Company. It’s been exhilarating and gratifying to watch their artistic development over the years.

Even though I knew every twist and turn of the plot, I found myself on the edge of my seat, waiting to see just how things would unfold…forgive me if I’m waxing a bit lyrical about this production, but, you see, I know what I like and I don’t like Arthur Miller plays about miserable people being miserable to each other..but WOW did I ever love this one.
This production so thoroughly uprooted my prejudices and expectations, and I loved every minute of it.

ucy Peacock gets better and better, year after year…others are just as strong and it is gratifying to see some of them come to the fore – Sarah Afful, EB Smith and Michael Blake in particular; while some newer faces – Jessica B Hill, Lanise Antoine Shelley and Roderigo Beilfuss – all give character depictions that promise a bright future on Festival stages.

Cushman’s review is one of a two-part series on Arthur Miller productions in Ontario. “The Deever family in this production are black, as are the Kellers’ neighbours. This, given the play’s immediate post-war setting, is implausible in some ways but suggestive in others. It casts new light on why Joe got off while his partner went to jail. It also provides for an excellent performance from E.B. Smith as the doctor next door and an electric one from Michael Blake as Ann’s brother who returns from visiting his imprisoned father and jolts the whole play into higher gear.”

Martha Henry has directed an exquisite production. It is as delicate as a spider web and as fraught with danger. The revelations of how deep the betrayals and deceit go grips you more and more tightly.Special mention must be made of Todd Charlton who created the sound for this production, from finding just the right combination of birdsong that perfectly creates an idyllic backyard, to the haunting voice of Nina Simone singing “Lilac Wine”, which says everything about the atmosphere and the deep feelings of the characters. Mr. Charlton created the worlds of the plays for which he designed the sound, by finding the perfect sounds for those worlds.

Mr. Charlton died suddenly in April. His loss to the theatre is crushing.

In his round-up of Arthur Miller productions on stage in New York, Stratford and Toronto, Nestruck notes “this production allows an exploration of the limits of the American dream in a way Miller’s plays rarely directly tackled…Henry’s is also a feminist production: She, like McBurney in 2008, begins the play with Kate approaching an apple tree planted in honour of Larry

While the four leads are uniformly brilliant in this production, the supporting cast also deserves a mention. As Sue Bayliss, Lanise Antoine Shelley sparkles in an adversarial scene with Afful, bringing humour and grit to her performance as neighbour’s wife. Blake is also convincing as the distraught brother, bringing both anger and genuine warmth to a small but pivotal role.

The set, the acting and the direction all combine to make All My Sons the most powerful, the most harrowing non-Shakespearean play to be presented at the Tom Patterson Theatre since Chekhov’s Three Sisters in 2009 which was also directed by Henry.

The entire cast brings nuanced performances to complex roles-each character relatable, and their decisions debatable…The casting and direction by Martha Henry and the moving portrayals by each cast member, make this play a Must-See this season at the Stratford Festival.

Sarah Afful proves to be a master of understatement and discreet foreshadowing in the pivotal role….Lucy Peacock’s magical mix of outward practicality and seething inner pain has to be experienced to be believed.

Martha Henry’s expert direction has given us an honest picture of a family crumbling apart, right through to its exhausting and gut-wrenching demise. She deserves credit for assembling an expert cast to create this post-war tragedy. Joseph Ziegler’s Joe Keller is a perfect example of a manipulative man who can bulldoze over everyone else by seemingly being their friend or mentor.

As Chris, Tim Campbell displays an extraordinary capacity to speak and listen as if ideas and feelings are coming to him in real time: he’s the play’s moral conscience and exudes a sense of solid goodness, Lucy Peacock triumphs in a performance of profound complexity as matriarch Kate…