Our Town
University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama
The thing that struck me most as the play started in the archaic Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre was the simplicity of the props and the lack of a set and how close to reality and a make-believe world this was. The theatre was filled with a lot of elderly people, as if to reminisce an age gone by. How would the young people of today fit into a play from the 1900s? That’s what I was curious about.
There were two sets of tables with three chairs each separated by a lone street lamp. Two staircases,one each at the far end of the stage represent the rest of the houses of the two families, the Gibbs’ and the Webbs. The play started with the Stage Manager walking in and addressing the audience directly. This was a nice twist and it felt so right!
Here’s a brief synopsis of the plot for the uninitiated. Dr.Gibbs and Editor Webb are neighbors in a fictional town with one street that could actually be anywhere in America. But we are told that it is a town named Grover’s Corners, in New Hampshire. Their wives are friends and go to the Choir together. Their children go to the same school. George Gibbs falls in love with Emily Webb and they marry. The plot involves around their lives as well as other characters like Howie the milkman who are present in order to show the continuity of life in the quaint little town. In three acts, we see the lives of these characters as they go from life to death. So what is special about this play?
Everything! The lack of the set, makes it necessary for the actors to set the scene by their actions while leaving no room for errors in interpretation. Mrs.Webb stringing beans, the two wives setting the breakfast table, the young ones falling in love, standing ladders used to represent their houses- these are all poignant scenes where we are made to focus on the characters on stage. Every action and every line spoken by the actor thus becomes important for the success of the play.
The stage manager (the narrator who did a marvellous job) weaves in and out informing us about the characters and also acting as one (like a grandma hit by George’s baseball or the preacher) in some cases.
Act One centers on the daily lives of the people in the town. Each character tells us something about the dreary reality of human existence and questions its eternity. For instance, Mr. Stimson, the drunken organist who is the center of attention of the town’s gossipmongers, reflects a darker side of ourselves. Howie the milkman represents a laborer who is happy with his lot. Mrs.Soames lends some comedy.
Act two aptly titled”Love and Marriage” precisely is that. George falls in love with a bright Emily when she tries to help him with his math homework. They resolve to be together over ice cream sodas. The innocent young love is so touching. When they get married, they have their whole youth in front of them and look so fragile but hopeful to face the world. And so what happens in Act three comes as a shock.
In Act three, Emily dies in childbirth and she joins her relatives (the now departed Mrs. Gibbs and her brother Wally Webb) and her fellow townsfolk in the cemetery. This scene was really well done. There were white chairs and each “dead” character sat still in clothes that they would be most remembered in. This scene was so poignant and full of questions- a reminder of the transience of the human state.
Emily doesn’t want to forget the life she lived and despite the warnings from the dead, she decides to visit her past life. She decides to pick a day and Mrs.Gibbs says, “Take the least important day in your life,that will be important enough.”
Emily’s ghost returns to Earth to re-live just one day, her 12th birthday, and realizes just how much life should be valued, “every, every minute.” Poignantly, she asks the Stage Manager whether anyone realizes life while they live it, and is told, “No. Saints and poets, maybe. They do some.” She then returns to her grave. The Stage Manager concludes the play with a soliloquy and wishes the audience a good night.
The play is a wake up call focusing on the “stop to smell the roses” theme. But when it came out, I am sure it was considered to be way ahead of its times.
I was worried about the relevance of such a play in today’s times. But under Jerry Schwiebert’s superb directing, today’s teenagers with their iphones and ipods and short attention span, did such a superb job. In the Q & A session that followed, they said that it was very easy to slip into the character once they knew what the character did. Not for a single moment did any one of the characters feel out of place or time.
The walk back home was slow as I enjoyed the lovely winter night and took it all in.
For [art]seen,
Krithika
In deference to Thornton Wilder, no pictures to distract attention from the writing.
