George Deever and Joe Keller (played by Walt Plummer and Bill Honl) argue about the past.

For a play that shows how family values can take a dark turn, don’t miss “All My Sons,” opening Friday, March 3, at Astoria’s River Theater.

The play premiered on Broadway in 1947 and won a Tony Award for best play for Arthur Miller, who died a year ago at age 89.

Although the play was written in the aftermath of World War II, its theme is especially timely, says Donna K. Wright, the play’s director.

“It’s about war profiteering and personal responsibility in wartime. What’s happening in our country just seemed to mandate putting this play on,” Wright says.

For Joe Keller, played by Bill Honl, family is everything. But his excessive zeal to provide for his own family creates a moral blind spot that leads to tragedy.

Keller owns a factory that manufactured airplane parts for the military during the war, and continues to be lucrative in peacetime. His two sons served in the U.S. Army Air Force. Chris (David Grimberg) came back; Larry didn’t.

But Joe’s wife, Kate (Karen Bain), clings to the belief that Larry, who was reported missing in action more than three years earlier, is still alive. Meanwhile, Chris has fallen in love with older brother Larry’s sweetheart, Ann (Audra Quiros), the daughter of Keller’s deputy manager, who is in jail for sending out a shipment of defective parts that led to the deaths of 21 USAAF pilots, all on the same day.

Keller denied responsibility and served a shorter sentence.

The couple’s marriage plans anger Ann’s brother George (popular actor Walt Plummer), who has come to the belated conclusion that his father was wronged by Keller. As buried feelings begin to emerge and lies are exposed, the Keller family’s carefully crafted veneer of prosperous normalcy is shattered. The tragedy unfolds in a middle-class suburban neighborhood in the Midwest in the 1940s.

Tempers flare and relationships shift between father (Bill Honl) and son (David Grimberg).The strong emotions that boil to the surface are in harsh contrast with the single set – the Keller family’s backyard, complete with lawn chairs, a croquet set and a small table where Kate Keller sets a soothing pitcher of cold drinks.

For inspiration, costume designer Susi Brown says she drew on a photograph of her parents’ 1947 wedding in Nebraska. The characters are dressed in costumes of the era, many of them actual vintage clothes. One actor wears a fedora and double-breasted business suit with wide lapels and wide legs with cuffs. The women’s high-heeled shoes are open-toed and blocky. Ann, the ingenue, has a pageboy hairdo with a pompadour. Mrs. Keller dresses in a soft, homey, comfortable style, with a touch of elegance that shows the family’s post-war prosperity. It could be the set for “Father Knows Best.”

Ann Deever, played by Audra Quiros, shares a letter with Chris Keller.”Costuming is a lot like playing dolls with big people,” says Brown, a former Knappa High School English teacher who directed many high school plays. “Costumes always push a character into place.”

Wright, the director, is also a longtime high school English teacher. She grew up in Kansas and has been active in the theater since she moved to Astoria 20 years ago. She has directed a couple of one-act plays, but this is her first time taking on a full-length production.

Wright has assembled an outstanding cast. Honl was last seen as the mystery-writing detective in “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” Co-star Bain directed “Lysistrata” and “Broadway Bound.” Grimberg honed his skills in perennial favorite “Shanghaied in Astoria.”

Quiros, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, is a talented newcomer. Neighbors include Barry Sears, Joan Blum, Aubree Friedrich, Adrian Pollut and Jacob Hurd, the young son of the River Theater’s founders, Nancy Montgomery and Tim Hurd.

Joe Keller, played by Bill Honl, and his family deal with his involvement in World War II.This is the biggest role so far for Friedrich. She plays simple, affectionate Lydia, who has the happy home and children George and Chris have not yet achieved. Friedrich became interested in theater after meeting Montgomery at community radio station KMUN, and spent a year behind the scenes handling props and doing stage management before taking on this role.

“Theater is so addicting,” Friedrich says, displaying the kind of enthusiasm that infuses the entire cast of this ambitious production.

The 93-seat River Theater, at 230 W. Marine Drive, opened in 1998, under the Astoria Bridge in Astoria’s historic Uniontown neighborhood. It has since achieved nonprofit status and set up a Web site, www.rivertheater.com. The theater features a full season of theater, music, poetry, spoken word and live radio every year.

George Deever (portrayed by Walt Plummer) laughs as he hears two versions of the same story from a mother and son (played by Karen Bain and David Grimberg).