Little did John Steber imagine, when attending the Shenandoah International Playwrights retreat in Virginia, USA, of which he is a director and dramaturg (theatre critic), that four years later one of his assignments - critiquing a play by former Bermuda resident Tom Coash - would ultimately lead to directing a play for the Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society (BMDS). In fact, until this year, Mr. Steber had not visited the Island.

During their time in Virginia, Mr. Coash mentioned that the Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society (BMDS) was looking for an American play and an American to direct it.

“I thought, ‘Jump! A couple of weeks on an island working...not bad',” Mr. Steber remembers.

Duly invited to submit to the society's drama committee a list of plays he would be prepared to direc, he included one by his favourite author, Arthur Miller, which happily turned out to be the ultimate choice of the BMDS.

“I chose ‘After the Fall' because it is difficult and you have to work at it,” Mr. Steber says. “I like a challenge. It's great for me and great for the cast.”

As a former actor and now professional director and voice coach, Mr. Steber could be forgiven for imagining that, in directing an amateur cast resident on a tiny mid-Atlantic island, he could be faced with a real struggle to realise the essence of Miller's play, make the performances plausible, and retain his reputation. Instead, he arrived for the auditions with an open mind and optimistic heart.

“I knew they were amateurs but I thought, ‘So What?' I didn't necessarily expect I was going to get Jason Robards but I did feel we would do just fine,” he says.

To say that he has been pleasantly surprised is an understatement.

“I was excited by the quality of the people auditioning. All I cared about was that there was a love of and interest in theatre work. You don't have to be professional, but you do want to be creative and you do want to work, and that is what I have found here. I am thrilled.”

When casting of the 17 characters, including two high school students, was complete, Mr. Steber had achieved his goal of “a real mix - to get the community involved”.

“Many were very well trained, and there were also people who were not as experienced, but my feeling was, ‘You came down, you had an interest, we had the room',” he says.

Tonight, when the curtain goes up at Daylesford Theatre on the first of eight performances of Miller's 1964 oeuvre, local audiences will have a chance to savour the fruits of the new US-Bermuda partnership - and in the director's opinion they are in for an outstanding treat.

“The performance is going to be unbelievable,” he promises.

The play takes the audience on a fascinating journey through the mind of Quentin, the central character, with “snapshots” of his life briefly portrayed behind him on stage as he reflects, as he revisits his past through thought and memory.

Quentin is a lawyer. All of his life women, including his mother, have deified him and called him “a king”. The play begins in 1929, jumps to the 1950s, and ends in 1964. Prior to the 1960s and women's liberation, their traditional destiny was to forego higher education, get married, have children, and be dutiful wives and mothers. When eventually Quentin meets Holga, however, she is a very different kettle of fish: highly educated, a professional archaeologist who travels the world lecturing, and thoroughly independent, she neither deifies him nor wants to get married. All she is looking for is a soulmate and someone with whom to share her life. He, on the other hand, has a real problem with intimacy and commitment, and it is this inability which propels him on a rigorous search through his life, during which he discovers a divided home, two failed marriages, and a failed friendship. The crunch comes when his new love Holga is about to leave town. He has to either make a commitment or break it off. What will he do?

The play indicates that in 1964 Miller was wrestling with the station of women in America - an unexpected revelation to Mr. Steber.

“I am a child of the ‘60s, and I realise that when I was young I didn't see female lawyers, doctors, paediatricians, dentists, politicians and so on. Then from the 70s we started seeing it. I came up with the women's movement and the black liberation movement in the US, so the world has changed drastically. With me and my friends, everything is pretty much 50-50, so there are none of the issues in ‘After the Fall' for me,” he says.

The director notes that Miller insisted he did not base his play on his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe, and he too insisted on the same thing in rehearsals.

The lead role of Quentin is being played by John Zuill, about whose abilities Mr. Steber is fulsome in his praise.

“John is doing such wonderful work, he is so smart and talented. He is really grounding our production,” he says. “Quentin is on every page of the script and he doesn't leave the stage. It is a mammoth role. It is not just about the technical element of John learning his lines and moves. There is a whole emotional map that Quentin has to traverse, and John is finding that so beautifully. He is so good at baring Quentin's soul in this performance. It is really thrilling to see.”

In fact, the visiting director is delighted with the cast as a whole.

“They are really, truly amazing, and have been doing such wonderful work,” he says. “Everybody should come and see them.”

Behind the scenes, he describes the technical aspects of the production as “huge” because ‘photographs' happen as the play takes place in Quentin's mind; Shelly Mckinnon-Burgess' set and Mary Brier's lighting as “really great”; Jim Brier's sound effects as “wonderful”; and producer Janet Slaughter is “swell”. Wardrobe designer Barbara Jones he sums up as “a national treasure”.

“There is such a commitment to making theatre, and that is what I find so exciting and thrilling here at BMDS,” Mr. Steber concludes.

‘After the Fall' continues through October 1 excluding September 28. Tickets ($20) are available at Daylesford box office from 5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on performance nights, and on Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Phone orders via credit card are accepted during box office hours ( 292-0848, or book online at www.bmds.bm