Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” is the most produced American play. It’s on stage somewhere every single day. So it’s not surprising that people think they know it -- “Our Town,” that folksy play that gets done in high schools.
But “Our Town” is much more than that. It’s a play that cuts to the core of what it means to be human, to experience life, and it’s a play that was so daringly experimental when it debuted in 1938 that it changed the face of American drama.
A production that gets all of that – or even most of it – right will shake you up in the opening scene and move you to tears by the end. Director Eric C. Stein and his cast have a firm grip on “Our Town” at the Vagabond Players.
Much of the groundbreaking nature of “Our Town” had to do with the way it’s staged – essentially on a bare stage without props; the audience fills in the blanks. The character of a Stage Manager was also groundbreaking. He serves as a narrator, introducing the characters and the action.
Josh Shoemaker plays the Stage Manager with the amiable calm of a schoolteacher.
The story that the Stage Manager tells seems simple enough. A pair of teenagers, next door neighbors – George Gibbs and Emily Webb – fall in love, marry and, well, just in case you aren’t familiar with the play, I’ll leave it at that.
In George and Emily’s first scene, William Meister’s George is bashful, a bit awkward, a good kid. Ryan Gunning’s Emily combines a youthful spirit with the slightly proud air of the smartest girl in school.
Kudos also to Gunning for her handling of her last scene – a scene that requires her to portray Emily at 12 and as a grown-up, watching and commenting on her younger self. The entire play builds up to this, and Gunning strikes a fine balance between the brash 12-year-old and somber adult.
Among the production’s other nice touches is that William Meister’s real-life father, Chip, plays George’s father, the town doctor. Ryan Gunning’s father also has a small role. It’s just the kind of thing that might happen if “Our Town” were produced in a town as small as Wilder’s fictitious Grover’s Corners.
Director Stein adds a few little embellishments – some sound effects, and, one bit I especially liked: George mimes giving Emily the cherry off his ice cream soda in the scene where they fall in love.
Not everything comes off with this much grace. But Stein and company respect the purity of the play and in the process come up with a production that honors Thornton Wilder’s achievement. The self-reflexiveness of “Our Town” – the way it never lets us forget we’re watching a play, instead of settling for naturalism – doesn’t seem unusual today. That in itself is a tribute to the play’s impact.
The Vagabond Players is celebrating its 100th anniversary with revivals of some of its best-loved plays. It’s been almost a half century since the theater last produced “Our Town,” but it still feels right at home.
