The opening night audience for All My Sons at Fairview Library theatre gave the cast of the Stage Centre Production a well-deserved standing ovation. This was mostly a senior audience. Where was the under-40 crowd?

A generation that finds three-minute music videos taxing to their attention span may find it difficult to understand the rewards of investing three-hours in a stage play. But that is the advantage live theatre has over movies and television. It's live and it's intense.

Director L. Garth Allen, in collaboration with the actors, has created some richly detailed performances that will linger in the mind long after the play is over.

Memorable and moving are perfect words to describe the performance of Margaret Hughes as the family matriarch, Kate Keller.

Miller's script describes the character as "a woman of uncontrolled inspirations and an overwhelming capacity for love."

Hughes portrays all of this along with the heart-breaking anguish that rumbles beneath the surface. Every catch in her voice, every pause and hesitation in her speeches reveals more of what this woman is thinking and feeling.

Matching her in both feeling and intensity is Danny Sullivan as her son, Chris.

Chris has survived the Second World War and returned home with the intention of marrying the girl his late brother left behind. Sullivan starts off slowly and builds the performance through one continuous crescendo to a frightening series of confrontations with his father, Joe Keller.

As Joe, the man whose business decisions have led to tragic consequences, Marvin Blier seems at times less secure. There are moments early in the performance where we see too much of "the actor" at work. Yet, when the key confrontation scenes happen, he rises to the occasions magnificently and the fireworks are undeniable.

The lighting design proved more problematic. If done correctly it can contribute much to the mood. Far too often, however, the performers were in shadow and there was little differentiation between the morning, evening and post-midnight scenes. It is a rare slip for an otherwise fastidious attention to detail for which this group is noted.

The set lends much more to the atmosphere of the play. The action takes place in the back yard of the family home. The set appropriately conjures up the image of a house owned by well-to-do family. It is pretty and picturesque with only a few hints of the gathering storm of tension to come.

In the end it is a combination of the performances and the play that wins over the audience. Those familiar with the piece will revel in the many sub-textual layers found in Miller's writing. First time viewers are in store for a real dramatic treat. Don't miss this one.