Does the world need another "Our Town"? The Hypocrites' new production of Thornton Wilder's 1938 warhorse answers—strangely, wonderfully—in the affirmative. A staple of high school English classes and drama departments, "Our Town" is the most produced play in the United States. That fact alone is reason enough for the Hypocrites to take it on.
David Cromer's revitalizing interpretation works double duty. At first, Cromer and his cast seem to be interrogating the play's position as the lodestar of American dramatic literature. Then, almost before you know it, their investigation ends up proving the rightfulness of the play's place at the heart of our collective theatrical imagination. Not bad for a night out.
Two rows of chairs on each side of the Chopin Theater's bare basement separate the space into wide alleys that serve as playing areas, situating the audience at the literal center of the action. This is wholly in keeping with Wilder's visionary attempt to make his play both a metaphor for the American democratic impulse, and a vital instance of its realization.
The good people of Grover's Corners, Wilder's iconic New Hampshire town poised on the brink of the 20th-century, seem to emerge organically from the audience itself. In Cromer's eloquent staging, the audience is physically enfolded in the small triumphs and heart-stopping tragedies.
The simple but devastating story is an epic drawn from the everyday: George Gibbs (Rob Fagin) and Emily Webb (Jennifer Grace), the children of two local families who've grown up next door to one another, fall in love, marry and, inevitably, fall victim to the force of tragedy. Because we spend as much time looking at each other as we do watching the actors, it's all we can do to keep from bawling into one another's laps by the end of the wedding sequence.
The excellent cast cuts through the gloss of the familiar by bringing out the surprising spikiness of Wilder's language; especially affecting are Stacy Stoltz and Samantha Gleisten as the two mothers. It's a pleasure to hear the text delivered with such clarity of purpose, and a revelation to discover just how vivid some of Wilder's characterizations actually are. Cromer himself plays the role of the Stage Manager and sets the tone of bemused sincerity (I know it sounds like a contradiction) that pervades the show.
A bold—and, I think, brilliant—directorial choice late in the third act should keep audiences arguing long after the lights come up. And as Emily, Jennifer Grace brings an unsettling energy to her go-for-broke closing monologue. For that moment, Grace achieves what every successful revisit to a classic should: She makes the familiar strange again. And that, this production seems to suggest, is what "Our Town" is all about.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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