OUR TOWN

Review by Celia Ipiotis

It’s another day in the lives of ordinary folks–nothing remarkable happens, and yet, everything is remarkable. In Thorton Wilder’s classic drama Our Town, the sun rises on Grover’s Corners in New Hampshire and the townsfolk rise to meet another day. We are immediately immersed in the daily events of small town life in 1901. There’s John McGinty (Howie Newsome), the attractive milk boy delivering glass bottles of milk. He signs to people he greets and they sign back. Doc Gibbs (Billy Eugene Jones), returns home after delivering a baby and gets his morning paper from Joe Crowell (Sky Smith). Families prepare their children for school and to meet the rest of the day.

Overseeing the town’s comings and goings, the Narrator, an affable and somewhat dryly amusing Jim Parsons, draws out his vowels while  describing the scenes and glorious emotions filling a town that bears new residents and in time, loses others.

Basically, the story focuses on two dominant families: the Gibbs and and Webs. Editor of the town’s newspaper, Mr. Webb (a genuinely satisfying Richard Thomas) is obviously proud of his intellectually gifted daughter Emily (Zoey Deutch). Seen helping George Gibbs (Ephraim Sykes) manage his homework, Emily is college material, but alas, she follows a traditional path and marries sweet George.  

Kenny Leon deftly directs the simple yet profound tale of life’s joys and losses. Set on a spare stage by Beowulf Boritt composed of rustic wood floors, chairs, some risers, and a spray of golden hued lanterns lit by Allen Hughes, magicallyl float over the stage and into the audience. As if part of the night sky, the lights add a timeless luminescence to the vibrant town.

Divided into three acts, the second act dives into the marriage between Emily and George. Touchingly humorous, the timeworn, unsettled feelings of individuals questioning such a major decision cascade to the final nuptial vows. No doubt, this generation might be thinking: Emily, you’re so smart, don’t cut your life short–go to college, get a career. But in truth, the women didn’t even have the right to vote until 1920 so for most, college was more a daydream than a reality.

Tragically, Emily dies in 1913. We learn of this as if reading the sad notice in the newspaper. No histrionics surface. Naturally, sadness ensues, particularly among the family members. Death during childbirth was not unusual at that time–and tragically, America retains a high mortality rate among women giving birth.

Joining several other town members who have since passed, Emily watches the scenes on earth and, with the help of the skeptical, but abiding Narrator, she returns to earth for one day of her choosing. Emily returns on her 12th birthday. It’s morning in Grover’s Corners. Her mother’s making breakfast, and indeed, the audience smells the bacon wafting throughout the Ethel Barrymore Theater. When her father returns after a few days away, Emily is overjoyed to see him. She rustles gleefully through her birthday gift, but then she realizes, the living are woefully unaware of the gift of life. Too painful to endure a second time, Emily returns to her destiny.

The multi-racial and abled cast syncs satsfyingly into the town’s rhythms. Timeless in its portrayal of the miracle we call life, there’s a matter-of-factness in Leon’s portrayal of what cannot be fathomed. Guided by the marvelous and effortless Jim Parsons, Our Town draws us out of ourselves and right back in. It’s a play for our time.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis