New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre launches its 50th anniversary year
with a newly visualized production of Thornton Wilder's classic play, Our Town. Written in 1938, Our Town is a wistful look at small town
American life, capturing the beauty in the details of the day to day lives of
ordinary people, and focusing on the commonality of the human experience. Set
in the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners, Our Town celebrates the universal themes of
love, family, constancy and stability, and teaches us to appreciate every day
because our short lives are fleeting. It also points to the artificiality of
theater itself, with characters that break in and out of the fourth wall with
ease, drawing audiences in with feelings of concern and participation in the
lives of the characters. Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Our Town has gone on to become one of the most
produced plays by community theaters and high schools throughout the country.
Our Town is a play in 3 acts that depicts
the everyday lives of the inhabitants of Grover’s Corners from 1901 through
1913. It is a celebration daily living, love and marriage, death and dying. With
minimal sets and props, the actors are forced to pantomime much of what takes
place on the stage and luckily the superb Long Wharf cast members are up to the
challenge. Nothing is missed as they act out cooking meals, delivering papers,
milk deliveries, playing ball, a town hall type meeting, a visit to the local
ice cream parlor, and even a funeral.
Led by the Stage Manager, excellently played by Myra Lucretia
Taylor, the strong cast of actors are all achingly believable in their
longings, worries, activities and desires. It is difficult not to be drawn into
their characters’ lives and we can easily imagine each as a very real person
that we know or wish to have known in our lifetimes. Standouts include Jenna
Leona as Emily Webb, and Leon Addison Brown and Christina Rouner as Emily’s
parents. Also notable are Rey Lucas as the boy next door, George Gibbs, and Don
Sparks and Linda Powell as George’s parents, Dr. & Mrs. Gibbs. In addition
to the cast, members of the greater New Haven community also appear as
additional townspeople.
Although the play takes place between 1901 through 1913, the Long
Wharf production dresses its multi-cultural cast in modern clothes, as if they
could have been anyone who walked in off the street. While this is certainly a
celebration of today's New Haven community, it presents a kind of disconnect in
terms of some of actions and values that the play espouses. I cannot imagine
that in today's day and age, it would be wise for someone to forgo college in
order to be with the one he loves, nor would I advocate marrying right out of
high school to start a family. These romantic notions work well within the
context of the play, but do not feel realistic for our time.
On the other hand, the way this play depicts the afterlife does
not coincide with my ‘romantic’ ideals of heaven. In Thornton Wilder’s vision,
you do meet those who have gone on before you, but there is such a dispirited
detachment from human emotion and life as we know it, that I was disappointed. As
depicted on the stage, there was no joy, no feelings of boundless love or even
of souls being a part of something greater; the dead were just waiting around
to feel something eternal. The bored and often disappointed and disapproving
looks on their faces when contemplating the living was in itself chilling –
like watching limbo in hopes that heaven soon would be here. It made me sad for
the dead.
One of the interesting aspects of Our Town is that it is a play that grows on audiences
over time. I've heard young teens refer to it as, 'that really long play that
goes on and on, and nothing happens,' while older fans say that they have 'come
to appreciate this show more and more, the older I get.' This shift in
perspective certainly has to do with experience and is played out on the stage
by the character Emily Webb, who only learns the value of life after her own
untimely demise. This can be a tough lesson for younger audiences to embrace. I
also suspect that part of the age difference in appreciation for this play
comes from feelings of nostalgia or even fantasy about living a simpler,
calmer, and more stable life free from the ever increasing stresses of today's
world.
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