Role

Description:

Joe Keller
(50's-60's)

a very ordinary man…decent, hard-working and charitable, a man no-one could dislike. He is from basic, working class stock…and has made good through his hard work and dedication. He isn’t well educated and sees the world in its most simple terms. His love of his family is paramount to all and colors all of his decisions and actions.

Chris Keller
(30's) 

an idealist who has been changed by his experience of war where he has seen men laying down their lives for their friends.  He is struggling to resolve his love and loyalty to his father despite the guilt he feels over making money out of a business which does not value the men on whose labor it relies versus his need to find love and beauty in his life.

Kate Keller
(40's-50's)

a woman with enormous love for her husband, her children and even for the neighbors’ children who grew up in her backyard. She has unassailable strength of will, driving her to hold onto an impossible conviction about her son’s fate in order to preserve the illusion of how life should be. 

Ann Deever
(20's-30's)

the beautiful, intelligent and loving fiancé of Chris’ brother, lost in the war over 3 years earlier. The daughter of Joe’s former neighbor and partner, currently serving time in prison for the crime that Joe has escaped, she is the only one who knows what really happened to Larry…and clearly understands what she wants based on that truth. 

Dr. Jim Bayliss
(30's-40's)

Joe’s neighbor, a doctor who in his youth shared Chris's ideals, but has been forced to compromise to pay the bills. He is resigned to his fate and obligations, but yearns for a more meaningful existence. Jim's is the voice of disillusioned experience. 

Sue Bayliss
(30's-40's)

a cynical woman who worked to put her husband through medical school, and expects in return to be supported at a suitable level of comfort and prosperity. She does not at all understand the idealistic views which her husband shares with Chris.

George Deever (30's)

Ann’s brother and, like Ann, grew up as almost family to Chris, Joe and Kate.   He, too, is a decorated war veteran who shared Chris’ ideals, and is shaken to his core when he discovers Joe’s betrayal of his father. He is strong minded, bitter and determined to prevent Ann from marrying Chris, but not immune to the appeal of ‘home’. 

simple, warm and affectionate. She represents the pre-war, uncomplicated view of the way life ‘should be’ – lovely wife, happy family, lots of kids, nice home…. everything that Chris and George want, but haven’t been able to realize. 

Frank Lubey(20's-30's)

a somewhat boorish, gullible and simple ‘guy’.  He lacks culture, education and real intelligence, but has made money in business, courted Lydia while the slightly younger men were fighting in the war, and attained the ‘dream’. 

Bert
(8-10)

a neighborhood kid who plays an on-going game of ‘Cops’ with Joe. He is a typically enthusiastic and impressionable young boy who enjoys the attention of an adult.