The Old Vic’s production of Arthur Miller’s first stage success All My Sons (1947) is so startlingly good as to invite comparison with the award-winning West End revival of 2010 with Zoe Wanamaker and the great David Suchet.

The stars this time are screen legends Bill Pullman and Sally Field. They present, in shattering style, the torments of a couple in denial – for Joe Keller, his role in the delivery of faulty engine parts from his factory, leading to the death of 21 US airmen; for his wife Kate, the fact of their elder son Larry’s death.

Missing for years, the pilot is known by all save Kate to be a goner. For the Kellers’ other son Chris her delusion stands in the way of his own happiness, in marriage to Larry’s fiancée Ann.

The casting in these junior roles is eye-catching, with a hugely impressive Colin Morgan, the BBC’s Merlin, as Chris, on whom slowly dawns the reality of dad’s dealings, and ITV’s Queen Victoria, Jenna Coleman, shining in her stage debut as Ann.

The emotional complexities of her life are aggravated by the fact that her father is doing time for the parts-shipping scandal, unvisited by her or lawyer brother George (Oliver Johnstone).

All this tense family drama is played out before the Kellers’ clapboard mansion (designer Max Jones), with adornments to the main theme from neighbours.

Nerdy Frank (Gunnar Cathery), for instance, uses his gift for astrology to bolster Kate’s belief in Larry’s survival, while doctor’s wife Sue (Kayla Meikle) refers, blind to the irony, of living beside “the Holy Family”.

Tension erupts with the arrival of a furious George, hot-foot from his father’s jail, now aware of his innocence and another’s guilt.

Once considered, in America’s witch-hunting days, an attack on capitalism per se, the play is more subtly pitched as an illustration that one’s duty to a wider society must be measured against business and family needs.

This fine production (director Jeremy Herrin) eloquently makes this point.

Till June 8. Box office: 0844 8717628

CHRISTOPHER GRAY 5/5