David Cromer directs and acts as narrator in Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town.'
A Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian, Tom Wirtshafter, Ted Snowdon, Eagle Prods., Dena Hammerstein/Pam Pariseau, the Weinstein Co. presentation of a play in three acts by Thornton Wilder. Directed by David Cromer.
Stage Manager - David Cromer
Mrs. Gibbs - Lori Myers
Mrs. Webb - Kati Brazda
Dr. Gibbs - Jeff Still
George Gibbs - James McMenamin
Rebecca Gibbs - Ronete Levenson
Mr. Webb - Ken Marks
Helmer David Cromer takes a hatchet to 70 years of saccharine productions of "Our Town" by deconstructing Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 masterpiece half to death. Grover's Corners, N.H., circa 1901, is no longer a microcosm of America before it was transformed by war and industrial development, but a dreary place inhabited by folk whose simple-minded ways are frowned upon by actors in modern dress. Like Emily, who can't see life for what it is until she dies, we're allowed a brief vision of the "real" Grover's Corners. And like her, we long for more.
Wilder was no sentimentalist, either, and the stark, expressionistic production he outlined in his stage directions was extraordinarily radical for its time. It was never his intention to romanticize the harsh realities of a rural life, but to fix the simple rituals of day-to-day life in America within the context of the ancient past and the eternal tomorrow -- to dramatize his belief that even the most modest life follows the natural course of a universal human destiny.
So, in a sense, rising-star Chicago helmer Cromer (who made impressive work of reimagining "The Adding Machine" as a surrealistic musical last year and makes his Broadway debut next season with a Neil Simon double) is beating a dead horse. The play doesn't need a corrective, just a fair reading.
It hardly seems fair, for example, to override the playwright's vision of a bare stage where the daily dramas of life are enacted in isolation. That is, after all, the point of the play -- to show us mortals how oblivious we are to the infinity of life swirling around us. Among the living, only the very young Rebecca Gibbs (Ronete Levenson) is open to a glimpse of eternity when she looks up at the stars and imagines her place among the solar system.
Here, the actors insert themselves among the audience, playing in such close quarters that the sense of detachment is lost. The purpose of putting the performers in the most casual of modern dress (old jeans and shapeless tops) is unclear, as is the rationale for the contemporary tone of their delivery. The result, however, suggests attitude, as if the thesps were so impatient with their thick-witted characters they simply had to shout.
As stage manager, Cromer tries for the more appropriately dry and matter-of-fact delivery Wilder wanted in order to show this otherworldly character's omniscience. But while the stage manager can get away with the utter lack of inflection, it's deadly in the mouths of the Grover's Corners citizenry. The avoidance of sentimentality is admirable, but the almost complete lack of emotion in this performance style is so extreme it amounts to anti-sentiment.
Only Ken Marks, as local newspaper publisher Mr. Webb, seems unable to stop himself from injecting sincere feeling in the homespun wisdom he attempts to pass on to the young 'uns. But the hint of humanity is so at variance with the production style, he'll probably be called on it.
To be sure, Jennifer Grace makes an honest effort to show the transformation that Emily goes through when she rises from her grave for one last look at home. That emotionally devastating scene -- in which Emily's eyes are at last opened to the utter beauty and brilliance of the short life she never fully appreciated while she was living it -- makes even more of an impact in Cromer's memorable staging. In fact, the flatline production style seems to have been deliberately designed to heighten the heartbreaking reality of that final ravishing scene.
But even here, Wilder's exquisite lines come out mashed and mumbled, as if the emotion of the words were somehow too embarrassing to speak out loud.
Sets, Michele Spadaro; costumes, Alison Siple; lighting, Heather Gilbert; original music/music direction, Jonathan Mastro; production stage manager, Richard A. Hodge. Opened Feb. 26, 2009. Reviewed Feb. 24. Running time: 2 HOURS.
With: Adam Hinkle, Robert Beitzel, Seamus Mulcahy, Wilbur Edwin Henry, Jonathan Mastro, Donna Jay Fulks, George Demas, Jason Yachanin, Jay Russell, Jeremy Beiler, Dana Elizabeth Jacks, Elizabeth Audley, Keith Perry, Joy Besozzi, Kathleen Peirce, Mark Shock.
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Date in print: Mon., Mar. 2, 2009