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Edward Albee called Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” “the greatest American play ever written,” and many would agree. The Company Theatre’s past seasons have featured such great American plays as “The Man Who Came to Dinner” and “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and it adds “Our Town” to the list in a production opening this weekend.
“Our Town” was an instant classic immediately after its 1938 premiere. It won a Pulitzer Prize, was adapted as a Hollywood movie, a musical, and an opera, has had high-profile revivals with stars such as Henry Fonda and Paul Newman, and is still a mainstay of high school and community theater.
But if “Our Town” is perennially popular, it may also be one of the most misunderstood American plays.
Wilder’s first act is a gentle, amusing survey of a day in the life of Grover’s Corners, N.H, on May 7, 1901, guided by a deceptively chummy Stage Manager. Along with many secondary characters, the Stage Manager introduces us to two families, the Gibbses and the Webbs. Their children, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, fall in love and marry in Act Two.
“Our Town” plays out as pleasantly sentimental until its third act, taking place in 1913, when we learn that Emily, along with most of the other characters, has died. After she is granted her wish to relive one perfect day on earth—her her 12th birthday—Emily realizes how little anyone appreciates of the beauties of earthly life, and takes her place again among the dead as George mourns her.
After the gentle folksiness of what came before it, that stoic ending can be very unsettling for an audience. But that’s exactly what Wilder intended.
“It should be performed … simply, dryly, and sincerely,” said the author, adding, “The climax of this play needs only five square feet of boards and the passion to know what life means to us.”
For many, the play’s appeal lies in its presentation of small town and American values (sometimes thought to be the same). But Brodie McPherson, who is directing the play for the Company Theatre, first encountered “Our Town” by reading it, and then took part in a community theater production. Now, a little later in his life, he sees much more in the play.
“In ‘Our Town,’ there are two sides to the coin,” says McPherson. “A lot of what we see between the characters is beautiful. These people do love and care about each other. But we also see that they often cause each other pain unwittingly.”
He points out the brief glimpses we get of people in town who are not comfortable New England WASPS, including an unseen “Polish family living down by the tracks” and a lonely, alcoholic choir master who is tolerated, but not helped, by most of his neighbors and finally commits suicide. (Company Theatre’s production employs a colorblind cast, emphasizing the play’s universality.)
Wilder was inspired by the scenery-less theater of the ancient Greeks and the Elizabethans, and borrowed this concept for “Our Town.” It takes place in the theater where it’s being acted, and there are no realistic settings. Several chairs suggest the Webb and Gibbs homes, church pews, and the cemetery, and all the props are mimed. (McPherson is adding a few carefully chosen set pieces and props to enhance a couple of scenes.)
The play’s simplicity is not an opportunity for actors to show how clever they can be, says McPherson. “Wilder specifically asked the actors not to try for hyper-realistic movements, but to give the essence what they are doing—it’s the physicalization of memory.
“‘Our Town’ is like Shakespeare. You just have to do the text, and the actors just need to have the freedom to let it be.”
Company Theatre follows up “Our Town” with a season consisting of Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This” (Nov. 6-22); John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” (Jan. 22 – Feb. 7); Francis Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” adapted by artistic director Carl Del Buono (April 9-25); and Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” (June 4-20).
The Company Theatre presents Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” Sept. 4-20 at 28 Lawn Street, downtown Rochester. Thecompanytheatreroc.org
David Raymond is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.
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