Nashville Repertory Theatre
— presents —
Our Town
by Thornton Wilder
Through Nov. 3
Johnson Theater at TPAC
TICKETS
“Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? — every, every minute?”
That answer is “No.” And it’s a jarring response that should make each of us sit up straight, because the human condition is to yearn for more. We only get more by being present, pushing back on that distinct emptiness inside. Without “more” our life doesn’t matter. Oh, but this is all so morose; maybe it’s just better to retreat to the comfort of our cell phone isolation?
A Masterpiece
Our Town, of course, is the great American Pulitzer Prize-winning play. This drama is produced more than any other American play, in high schools, community and regional theaters and on Broadway (a revival is running there now). It’s a work of power, especially in 2024, where culture has shifted so far from 1901 that the small-town life at the play’s center is practically a fairy tale. Today we hardly speak to each other outside of our homes (or in), our heads down in our devices, we rarely stop for breakfast. Our Town points to the critical, life-giving salve we find only in our in-person relationships. We need them, we admire those who have them, we feel badly for those who don’t. Playwright Thornton Wilder’s keen examination of small-town life delivers a philosophical punch that resonates. You do not live forever; your time passes quickly; you’re missing the boat. This play urges us to go back.
A Successful Opening
Nashville Rep begins its 40th season with Our Town, shining a lens on the fictional inhabitants of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. It starts in the present. As the audience files in, actors in casual clothes mingle at center stage in the fully lit Johnson Theater. Some sit in chairs on upstage platforms. By the time the Stage Manager arrives (Wesley Paine, sophisticated and wry) to narrate us through, all of the actors are in chairs, ready to begin, the entire house still in full light.
This play-within-a-play is performed in three acts. Act I is “Daily Life;” Act II, “Love and Marriage;” Act III, “I reckon you can guess what that’s about,” the Stage Manager tells us. Director Micah-Shane Brewer and Scenic Designer Gary C. Hoff deliver Wilder’s classic approach adeptly. A bare-bones stage with two tables and chairs, few costumes, light cues, scant props. As the play progresses, so too do the accessories. Sound (Kevin O’Donnell) and lights (Phillip Franck) will slowly increase. By Act III, effectively, characters will be in full costumes (Melissa K. Durmon), brightly lit, enjoying a real breakfast and hot coffee so that the impact of looking back to a treasured memory will be fully realized.
If the first two acts succeed in winning you over to the deep value of growing up connected to others, Act III will pack an emotional wallop. In the end, it’s all over too soon and we can’t take it with us. It’s a cruel and sharp reminder to be more present as we walk through our numbered days.
Universal Experience
The play illustrates the universal experience of living — and the incessant knock of death. In Act I, when newsboy Joe Crowell (a bright cameo from Christopher Cooper) begins making his rounds on Main Street, he chats with Doc Gibbs (a convincing Galen Fott). This amiable exchange is shattered when the Stage Manager tells us Joe will win a scholarship to MIT before dying in France during World War I. It’s true that almost as soon as you meet any of the living in Grover’s Corners you learn of their dying.
Our lives are hidden in the hyphen between the two dates etched on our tombstones.
Stand-Out Performances
Wilder focuses mainly on the growing up, falling in love and passing away of two neighboring kids. George Gibbs (a charmingly energetic Bryce Dunn in a solid Rep debut) captures a boyish quality perfectly in Act I. He’s the mature stung-by-love adolescent in Act II. And he wounds your heart stretching out across his dead wife’s grave in Act III. The girl next door, Emily Webb (an appealing and cerebral Candace-Omnira), crosses through all three acts somewhat introspectively.
George’s mother, Mrs. Gibbs (a skillful Erica Elam), longs for more out of life. She will settle for the “smell of the heliotropes in the moonlight.” Mrs. Webb (Katie Bruno) perfectly conveys the breathless aspect of raising kids. Mr. Webb, (a vibrant Bakari King), fills in the edges of his role with warmth and humor. In Act III, when he cries, “Where’s my girl? Where’s my birthday girl?” he literally squeezes your heart.
Young actor Ella Vignon brings honest spunk to her portrayal of George’s little sister Rebecca. And Evan Roberts makes a sweet Wally Dunn (who we learn dies in childhood from a burst appendix at Boy Scout camp). Other performances of note include Howie Newsome (a playful Jarvis Bynum), delivering milk as he tugs an invisible Bessie the cow. Simon Stimson, the choir director and town drunk (a downtrodden and perfectly tragic Shawn Knight), alarms at church choir practice when he slams the piano keys in disdain before stumbling away on Main Street. Mrs. Soames (a chirpy Beth Anne Musiker), provides a light-hearted touch at the wedding, even when Emily wants out with cold feet.
An Important Message
But the play’s the thing, the play’s the thing. Here you’ll get the underscored warning that life is about people, not your personal ambitions and selfish desires. Life passes rapidly; your place in the Family Tree matters; the stories people will tell of you after you’re gone matter. Bring yourself to the Rep to experience this play. Bring your big kids. Strive to eek out the deeper meaning in your life by being present and available. Your time here will be over before you know it, Wilder says, and by virtue of losing others we know that’s true. Make it count. It’s a message we all need to hear today.
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