Every year across this great country of ours, hundred upon thousands of plays are produced. Some at the professional level, some at the college level, but most of our theatrical entertainment comes from that of our local high school productions. From Shakespeare to Rogers and Hammerstien, thousand of parents and family watch as their children go out onto stage to become a star for the night. Thankfully, no one goes to a high school show expecting professional quality work. Someone will forget a line, the sets aren’t the greatest and the show can be down right boring.
It is rumored that Our Town is the number one produced play at the high school level, and because of that it has suffered greatly as an American masterpiece. Donald Haberman stated it best in his analysis of Our Town: “Our Town has a unique problem for a play: it is performed too often. It is easy to put on. It requires no scenery and nothing in the way of costumes. For a school production, especially, it has the attraction of a big cast, every student who wants a part can get one”(Haberman 8)”.
Even though Our Town is criticized for being performed too much and performed poorly, it still remains one of the most powerful plays ever written for American theatre. In order to understand Our Town one must first learn about its playwright Thornton Wilder. Thornton Wilder was born on April 17, 1897 in Madison Wisconsin (Stresau 3). Thornton actually spent most of his childhood years abroad in China and Hong Kong due to the fact that his Father was a consul general to Hong Kong during the era of Theodore Roosevelt (4). Wilder returned to America in 1915, from there he went to Yale and began his writing career (4).
Besides Our Town, Wilder is greatly known for two other works; The Skin of Our Teeth and The Matchmaker. Although those are his popular works, Wilder has also written many other masterpieces such as The Long Christmas Dinner and Love and How to Cure it. Wilder was highly recognized for his works. He received the Pulitzer Prize for three of his plays (Our Town, The Bridge of San Luis Rey and The Skin of Our Teeth) and we was also awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Goethe Plaque and the Peace Medal of Pour le Merite (121-122).
After a long and successful career, America lost one of its greatest playwrights on December 7, 1975. The first production of Our Town was produced in 1938, then moved on to Broadway in 1939 where it caught critical acclaim. Wilder received the Pulitzer Prize for Our Town in 1938. Although I could not find any reviews for the original production of Our Town from 1938-39, it has been revived many times in this century. In 1969, the Plumstead Playhouse revised Our Town and in its cast included Henry Fonda as The Stage Manager.
As with everything else in this world, when “professional” critics criticize something, someone is either going to love it or hate. Our Town is no exception in this field. Out of the seven reviews I found, three liked the showed, three didn’t and one was in between. Some praised it; “It is a pleasure to revisit Grovers Corners (New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews 176). ” “Our Town says everything you’ve ever wanted to say about your country and your town and your life (179).
And, “If you’ve never seen Our Town you’ve never seen the greatest of American plays (179). ” With ever praise though comes criticism; “But I reject Our Town as an American classic because instead of coming to grips with American life, it looks at it with foggy nostalgia (170). ” And, “I don’t want to put down Our Town’s gray hairs, or its Pulitzer Prize, or the undeniable skill of Thornton Wilder; but, I must say I found most of it boring as a play, and all of it simplistic and annoying as a hunk of philosophy (179).
It’s no surprise that Our Town can be received negatively or positively, it is a slow play with deep meanings and ideas which can easily be overlooked by the average audience member, but, it is because of those meanings and ideas that it can fascinate anyone for years (like myself). So what are those idea’s and meanings that make or break this play? Well before I address that a (very quick) synopsis is needed at this point in order to understand my analysis of Our Town. The play takes place in Grovers Corners New Hampshire from 1901 to 1913.
Our Town is narrated by an omniscient character called The Stage Manager (we’ll get back to him) it is also played in three acts. Each act is titled, act one being daily life, two is love & marriage and three never receives a formal name, but could easily be called death and the afterlife. There are many characters in Our Town, basically the plot revolves around two families that are neighbors the Webb’s and the Gibbs, more specifically the play revolves around the lives of George Gibbs and Emily Webb (more so Emily). That is all you need to know for now, well check in on the plot later.
With the use of his messages and idea’s in the acts and The Stage Manager to relate to the audience, Wilder creates one of the greatest works for the stage that will live on even when I pass away. Normally in theatre one never sees a Stage Manager on stage, he/she performs many duties back stage to ensure that the production flows smoothly. Some of their duties include setting the stage and telling actors their cues. The character of The Stage Manager does that too (but does not act as the real stage manager) in Our Town but he also is the narrator for the play.
Wilder breaks one of the many “norms” of theatre by having a character specifically speak to the audience. From the very beginning, The Stage Manager tells where we are, whom people are, how they live and how they die. He isn’t part of Grovers Corners, yet he is. He steps in and out of the play only to portray small roles such as the old lady, Mr. Morgan and the Pastor. Another distinguishing feature that gives The Stage Manager an omniscient characteristic is how he can move time forward in motion, or backwards, pause the present or reveal the future to the audience, and towards the end, the characters.
I have yet to see or read any other play that breaks this boundary in such a way that Wilder does with The Stage Manager. It is with this device that Wilder uses to begin to distinguish Our Town as an everlasting masterpiece. Act one deals with the daily life of Grovers Corners. In it Wilder illustrates all the important aspects of the simple life in a small town; the milking of cows, chores of children, and delivery of newspapers. We see that even though we are in a small town, life is busy and non-stop.
Through the necessary chores and mannerisms of the day, we are exposed to what a day in the life of Grovers Corners is. For the children, it is waking up and off to school. For parent’s, men work and women stay home to take care of the house. The first Act, like any other play, sets up the rest of the play. Act one takes place in 1901, the children are young and adults still alive. The first act also illustrates just how life lives in Grovers Corners. This is wonderfully illustrated through a scene between Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webbs. A salesman offers to buy a piece of furniture from Mrs.
Gibbs, he is willing to pay a lot for furniture she doesn’t even want anymore. She thinks about and wants to use this money to go to Paris. On vacations the Gibbs have only gone to Civil War battlegrounds, and for once in her life, Julia Gibbs wants an adventure. Of course though, she knows that her husband Frank Gibbs will never go for the idea, and she’ll never see Europe. Later on in the act, we see the women coming home from their choir rehearsal. The choir director has a drinking problem and, as illustrated in the play, was drunk (or on his way to) during rehearsal.
The ladies walk home and gossip up a storm about their evening’s scandal that no one dares to talk about in public. The act closes with the children staring out their windows looking at the stars wondering what the world is like out side of Grover Corners and just how big God created the universe. Wilder brings us in to Grovers Corners so obtrusively in a way that even if you didn’t want to be there, you didn’t mind being dragged along. The nice part is that you don’t want to leave. A small country town with good people, something we don’t see and get to be a part of every day.
Act one, the daily life, is truly a nice integration for the coming acts ahead, which aren’t so pleasant for our minds, soul and heart. Act two jumps ahead three years to make it 1907. The Stage Manager brings us up to speed and tells us that this act deals with love and marriage. He states is best by saying “Almost everyone in the world gets married, -you know what I mean? In our town there aren’t hardly any exceptions. Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married. (Wilder 57). ” As the scene progress, we find out that today is someone’s wedding day.
Low and behold we find that our very own George Gibbs is marrying Emily Webb. Before they get married though, The Stage Manager brings up a good point, how did they decide to get married? With the help of his omniscient skills, The Stage Manager takes us back in time to see the conversation between George and Emily when they knew that “They were meant for one another. (70)” In the scene, they don’t go around talking about how much they love each other and how no one else in the world maters but them. Their mutual likeness comes out through the fact that George might leave and go to farming school.
Only then do they realize that they would be living separate lives away from Grovers Corners and each other. George sums it up pretty well by saying; “I think that once you’ve found a person that you’ve [sic] very fond of I mean a person who’s fond of you, too, -at least enough to be interested in your character Well, I think that’s just as important as college is, and even more so. That’s what I think (80). ” With that, we move onto the wedding, At the wedding we see and hear the many thoughts going through the minds of everyone there.
We start with the mothers thinking about how they don’t think their children are ready and how old they are. From there though we move on to the profound thought at a wedding, that of the bride and groom. At one point Emily tells us what every bride goes through at the alter (at least I’m pretty sure every bride goes through this since I will never be a bride knock on wood); “I never felt so alone in my life. And George over there, looking so! I hate him. I wish I were dead (93)” After stern talks from their parents, both on them see the err of their uneasiness and the wedding goes on without a hitch.
Many plays are based on love and marriage with its many high’s and low’s and how they affect other people around them. Wilder’s act two shows us all of that in a small amount of time (that time frame being a single act). Through Emily and George we see how true love forms, develops and marries. Raw emotions are shown through simple and plain talk to the point that it becomes almost too simple to understand, but thankfully it never crosses that line. Finally we reached the final act, the one that has no title. A quick note on the sets for Our Town. The show is to be produced with no sets, except for a few minimal pieces.
The reason for this is to highlight the script more than for attention to be on the set. During the intermission between acts two and three, stagehands bring out chairs and line them up in a couple of rows. Slowly some of the characters come in and sit in the chairs and remain motionless. The chairs are graves and their inhabitants are dead. Among them are Mrs. Gibbs and Simon Stimson (the drunken choir director, we find out later that he committed suicide). To me, the third act is the bread on the butter for Our Town, it is also one of the most fascinating acts ever to be seen in theatre.
The beginning of the act opens as all the other acts of the play have opened, with The Stage Manager coming out, introducing time and place (we are now on a hill top looking all around New England, the year is 1913). He also tells about life and death and how the folks in their graves are waiting for something eternal. The third act opens in a graveyard around a new grave. As the funeral procession leaves, we see Emily (now Mrs. Gibbs) stay behind and take her place among the dead. Emily has passed away due to difficulties while she was giving birth to her second child.
Her presence is bright and cheery among them for she is happy to see her friends. She realizes she is no longer of the living, but she is here now to do something. In her attempts to find something eternal about herself and/or life, she discovers she can spend any moment in time again. Everyone in the graveyard warns her not to, but they won’t stop her. In her plight to understand why she shouldn’t go back, The Stage Manger steps in and warns her; “You not only live it; but you watch yourself living it And as you watch it, you see the thing that they -down there -never know. You see the future.
You know what’s going to happen afterwards (114). ” Even after warnings and precautions, Emily still decides to return among the living for one moment in time. In her thinking Emily decides she will choose a happy day of her life, Mrs. Gibbs warns her though saying; “No. At least, choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough (115). ” Her advice falls on a deaf ear though and Emily, with the help of The Stage Manager, goes back to her twelfth birthday. Upon arrival she sees all the little things we forget as time goes by, the smell of snow, details on your house, breakfast.
Small insignificant things that you wouldn’t realize their importance until they are eternal. Emily goes home only to find that nothing special is happening. All the motions are being played in front of her just exactly like the day she turned twelve. She desperately pleads with her mother to stop and look at her, but Mrs. Webb continues on with her routine for all of this has all ready happened and Emily is just reliving it. She continues to do so until the smallest and most cherished things she forgot to love become so painful to embrace again that she can’t bear it anymore and asks The Stage Manager to return to her grave.
Whoever before she does so Emily says goodbye; “Good-by [sic]world. Good-by, Grovers Corners Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you (124). ” She returns to her grave where Mrs. Gibbs asks if she was happy, Emily plainly replies no. The Stage Manager then closes the play, he makes reference to the stars and how everyone is asleep in Grovers Corners.
With the end of the play comes a sad sense of closure, our visit here is done and it is time to move. With one revolutionary act, we see that life itself isn’t money, power or sex. We see how it’s about the little things in life we take for granted and how no matter what we try we can never have those back again in life or death. This is what makes Our Town a timeless masterpiece. Even in our society today, we don’t court like George and Emily did but we can still relate to them. We will never have that feeling of our first kiss ever again or the feeling sand in a sandbox at kindergarten.
Sure we can try to mimic them, but nothing will ever come close. I must confess now, I did do Our Town in high school. I’d like to think we did a good show, and I still think we did, but I’m sure we didn’t hit all of Wilder’s points. I played The Stage Manager in the show and it really changed me personally. I now think about things such as they will never happen again, for in some cases they won’t. Time and perspective of life has been changed for me. We live in a certain places for years in our lives, yet some many things, so many different things happen in our space.
I remember when my parents left me here at Linfield and we said goodbye at the corner of Lever St. and Linfield Ave. They were so proud and had tears in their eyes. I’ll never forget that because every time I walk around that corner or even see it I think of my folks. Funny parallel though, I was having a heated argument of a personal matter on that same corner not too long ago, and all I could think about was my parents. So now when I walk around that corner I think of that fight, my folks and the possibilities of what else might happen on that corner.
Thornton Wilder shows us that in Our Town and teaches us to appreciate everything while we have it. Though that is one of the most overdone plots nowadays (especially during Christmas) Wilder’s Our Town accents it best. True the play is done too often, and someone should police it to ensure its integrity. Nevertheless, no matter what happens to the residents of Grovers Corners on any stage in the world, Wilder’s words still shine through with his enduring message and will continue to do so for many curtain calls to come.
