Review of ‘Our Town’, performed by Novato Theater Company

/ Marin Theatre Company/

I thoroughly enjoyed Novato Theater Company’s production of Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’. A play that reminds us of the beauty in the everyday and the importance of our place in the big cosmic cycle of birth, life and death.

A narrator, The Stage Manager, brilliantly performed by Christine Macomber, introduces us to a cast of characters and events in an ordinary Midwest American town, from an omniscient vantage point. We get the impression not much has changed in the last 200 or so years. ‘The earliest tombstones in the cemetery up there on the mountain say 1670-1680…same names as are around here now.’

The play begins in 1901, and concerns itself primarily with two families, who live next door to each other - that of the town Doctor, Dr. Gibbs and his wife and young daughter and son, and that of the town newspaper editor, Mr. Webb, and his wife and two children.

The story opens as Dr. Gibbs returns from having stayed up all night to deliver a baby, and the narrator tells us exactly how many breakfasts, dinners and lunches the wives have made over the years, acknowledging their importance in the scheme of things.

The impression is that a film is being run, as the narrator stops and pauses, tells us that a newspaper boy running by will soon die in the war, or shows us scenes between the characters that are significant to the story. The tone is lyrical, reflective and conversational. The language of early 20th century small town America.

We watch as the daily routine plays, children get up for school, mothers fight with daughters about what to wear. Mrs Gibbs speculates about how she wants to visit Paris someday and we meet George Gibbs, the eldest son and learn about the clever girl next door, Emily Webb. Time jumps forward three years and we watch a romance unfold.

The final act takes place nine years later, and deals with death, we meet the characters in the play who have died, and learn about their regrets. My 13 year old daughter sobbed into her hankie for most of the last twenty minutes. I won’t give too much away, in case you’re not familiar with the play, safe to say, that apparently it’s one that makes 13 year old girls suddenly really appreciate their families. And THAT is something worth taking your recalcitrant teen to see.

The standard of acting was excellent, with compelling performances from all involved. Special mention to Chloe Flynn, as Rebecca Gibbs, the flouncy teen daughter who was a standout, (I should know!), with a voice that stood up to the demanding range of the one song.

Director, Michael Barr, did a great job of staging this production, simple kitchen tables, or chairs drawn to the front of the stage provide opportunities for the drama to unfold. The graveyard scene was sombre, surreal and austere, with the dead clad in white, and the living in black, which made for powerful visuals. Costumes too were basic, and low key, but in period and effective.

Our Town won Thornton Wilder the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for drama and it’s easy to see why. It makes small town America universal, gently reminding us of our own mortality, and inciting us to see even the most ordinary of days as a gift. My daughter and I thought this lyrical version was captivating. Catch it while you can.