A Fine “Town” with an Ever-Relevant Message

I recently watched a recording of Thornton Wilder's 1938 play "Our Town", as performed several years ago at the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, CT. This adaption was directed by James Naughton. I was required to write a review for English, and I thought I'd share it with you all.

Thornton Wilder’s 1938 work “Our Town”, one of America’s most widely-adapted plays, is a triumph of simplicity and insightfulness. It is the story of Grover’s Corners, NH, at the start of the century, following the lives of high school sweethearts George Gibbs and Emily Webb.

Mr. Newman as the Stage Manager.

In “Our Town”, the audience is guided across time and the town’s area by the Stage Manager – just another character in the play, here portrayed by Paul Newman. How the elderly actor was snagged for the part, I don’t know, yet in the end it makes little difference. Newman does not act a star. Delivering his lines slowly and simply, Newman might’ve as well been any other actor.

For me, hence the problem. The Stage Manager is a primary character. He introduces the audience to the town, interviews characters, and gives the sermon at George and Emily’s wedding. The part isn’t exciting, but Newman’s performance to me felt redundant. His hand movements and voice inflections were simply repeated too often.

A performance I found more compelling was delivered by the play’s other “star”: Jane Curtin as Mrs. Webb. Though one could argue her movements seemed just a bit too busy for the pace of the small town, I enjoyed her depiction of motherly fretfulness. Her conversations with neighbor Mrs. Gibbs (Jayne Atkinson) felt very natural, though Atkinson seemed a little too old for her part.

That very problem was a threat in the first act, for actors Ben Fox (George) and Maggie Lacey (Emily.) Not only did the two appear too old to play teenagers, but they often acted so as well. Lacey’s demeanor was too mature; Fox’s almost bumbling performance felt a little ridiculous. I found it difficult to understand either’s affection for the other.

However – though the main cast’s first-act performances were questionable – I found myself warming up to the adaptation by the start of Act II. For me, the play was rescued by its minor characters. I particularly enjoyed the spot-on performances of Stephen Spinella (Simon Stimson) and Jeffrey DeMunn (Mr. Webb.) Background characters such as Howie Newsome (the milkman, played by Jake Robards) also gave the play a very natural feel. Fox’s performance also improved towards Act III’s start, and I loved Lacey’s utterance of my favorite line: “Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”

The wedding scene.

Just as crucial to the play’s success was its simple set. Streets and houses were left to the imagination, save for a Grover’s Corners map the Stage Manager presented in his opening monologue. Later in the first act, when George and Emily discussed homework problems, their second-floor bedrooms were symbolized by ladders. At choir practice, Stephen Spinella mimed playing an organ (accompanied by organ music), and as Jake Robards pretended to lead his invisible cow, Bessie, cowbell sounds clang overhead. Even the most simplistic props were excluded: the Gibbs and Webb families feigned the use of utensils during breakfast scenes.

Though some might criticize such extreme minimalism, I appreciated the choice. The play is designed for a simple set, and it works thematically. “Our Town” deals with that very human tendency to become caught up in our daily lives, forgetting to appreciate simple pleasures. To strip props is to strip distractions; the audience is given a focused look at human nature, very intelligently and affectingly done.

I was less a fan of this adaptation’s dim lighting, though I didn't find it inappropriate. I would acknowledge that George and Emily’s wedding scene was too darkly lit, but I felt the lighting of Acts I and III worked. Much of Act I takes place at night and in the early morning, and the third act, “Death and Eternity”, obviously requires a darker set.

Overall, I enjoyed and appreciated this interpretation of Thornton Wilder’s most successful work. Naughton is faithful to the play in the actors’ ages and ethnicities, as well as the minimal set. The performances, though occasionally questionable, were for the most part quite good. And it is through these successes, this accomplished depiction of a small New Hampshire town, that we may all gleam a lesson.

Though the play was written seventy years ago, based on the events of thirty more, its message is as relevant as ever. We cannot forget to sometimes look past our modern world’s innumerable distractions, to appreciate the moon and the lovely scent of heliotrope. This adaption’s third act shines when Maggie Lacey’s Emily remarks that it is so often the living who are “shut up in little boxes”, not the dead. It is such moments that make James Naughton’s depiction of America’s most popular “everytown” a fine production, even if not theatrical perfection.

Ever seen "Our Town"?