The façade of American suburban placidity comes crumbling down in Arthur Miller’s masterwork, “All My Sons,” now on stage at Carpenter Square Theatre in Oklahoma City.

Originally staged in 1947, Miller’s tragic indictment of postwar values followed closely on the heels of the end of World War II, but the play remains unimpeachably forceful today. Even if Carpenter Square’s production occasionally feels like it’s not doing justice to the play’s emotional complexities, Miller’s words are unmistakably powerful and relevant still.

“All My Sons” takes place in the carefully groomed yard of the Kellers. Matriarch Kate (OU alumna and artistic director Rhonda Clark) still pines for her son Larry, an Army pilot who went missing in action during the war. Her husband, Joe (Hal Kohlman), and her other son, Chris (Brett Rottmayer), have given him up for dead, but Kate puts on a face of brave certainty that Clark plays with a frightening off-kilter clarity.

Chris has invited former neighbor Ann (drama sophomore Emily Jackson) to the house, which baffles Kate, as Ann was Larry’s former girlfriend. Chris wants to marry her, but in Kate’s mind, Larry is still out there and Ann is still patiently waiting.

Ann is also the daughter of Steve Deever, Joe’s former business partner who took the fall for shipping faulty airplane parts that killed 21 American pilots. Joe spent some time in jail, but was quickly exonerated.

There’s a maelstrom of conflict, corruption and teetering sanity in “All My Sons” that is just below the surface of the play’s ostensible antiseptic relationships. The Kellers’ neighbors wander in and out of their yard, spouting pleasantries and shallow observations on the state of the world — ironically contrasted with the knowledge that the world was torn apart by war just a few years prior.

The actors that look like they’re suppressing this knowledge and more are the ones who come across most convincingly, and Clark and Jackson both stand out as people about to crack from the pressure. OU alum Addison Miller takes control of his scenes as George, Ann’s brother, who’s infuriated at the Kellers’ betrayal of his father.

With three acts that push past the two-and-a-half hour mark, Carpenter Square’s production sometimes has trouble maintaining momentum with its static set, but the overall effect of disillusionment is never in doubt.

Further alienating the audience in an effective way is the excellent scenic design by Michael Payne, who also directs the production. Fake flower blossoms are littered across a painfully artificial plot of grass, further emphasizing the falsity of this suburban peacefulness.

“All My Sons” is on stage at Carpenter Square through April 17.