Our Town at Asheville Community Theatre
Before the curtain rose on Asheville Community Theater’s production of Our Town, director Robert White asked how many in the audience had read Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play in high school — and thereby stole my pre-planned opening for this review. Still, hands went up all across the theater.
Our Town is one of those texts that many of us were required at some point to read. If we saw it performed, it was likely a student production or the 1940 film adaptation — not the most conducive way to gin up a 14-year-old’s interest in the doings of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire, circa 1901.
But whether you remember Our Town as a bore or a chore, set that notion aside and make time to see this production before it closes on Sunday, Oct. 16. In the hands of ACT, delivered by a multi-generational cast and framed against the near century that has passed since its writing, the play is revealed to be a poignant, endearing, heartbreaking, sometimes contradictory, and certainly timeless look at how we exist together to navigate life’s twists and turns.
With only a couple of tables and a few chairs for a set, the stage is left to the actors to pantomime their way through everyday activities, greet one another, and engage in mild gossip as morning arrives in Grover’s Corner.
Minimalism and subtlety in both lighting and set design from Dave Bortle and Jill Summers, respectively, work well for this play, helping to establish its tone and quiet timelessness. Small changes in lighting and soft projections demonstrate the passage from day to night, while a silhouetted city skyline peeking from behind mountains confirms that “Our Town” is indeed Asheville.
So too do the costumes remind us of our hometown, and the players wear contemporary and casual clothing along with glimpses of tattoos and ear gauges.
As conversations on the avenue and at the breakfast table surround the weather, the crops, school, and the weather again, the Stage Manager (Elli Murray) serves as narrator and guide, breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience directly. She makes introductions and even prompts us to look for places where the town’s rural conservative veneer may be peeling back. The townsfolk adhere to social norms but in private may comment on them with a wave of the hand or a droll aside. When local newspaper editor Mr. Webb (Tom Trauger, in a standout performance) offers that “All males vote at the age of 21. Women vote…indirect.” He does it with a knowing sardonicism that was met with wry chuckles from the audience.
By the play’s middle act, town chatter turns to the impending wedding of Emily Webb (Lily Nilo) and George Gibbs (Jayden Parton). Introduced earlier as schoolmates mostly interested in baseball and student council, they are now on the verge of young marriage and resisting the leap even as they profess their devotion to each other. They are not alone in their apprehension — as the wedding closes in, Mr. Webb gives George a dubious man-to-man talk that likely only stokes the boy’s anxiety.Meanwhile, George’s parents reflect on their own arranged wedding and the terror they felt, leading Mrs. Gibbs (Cori Search) to cry out: “Weddings are perfectly awful things. Farces, that's what they are!”
These scenes are among the most heartfelt and humorous in the play, even if the misgivings do nothing to stay Emily and George’s inevitable wedding day. Nilo and Parton are cast perfectly as Emily and George, and the two approach young love with equal parts awkwardness and anticipation. Nilo shines even as her character frets about the gravity of growing up, and Parton charms with a gangly good nature.
Our Town is, at its heart, about the passing of time, and over time it becomes easy to care about these characters, which is why, even with fair warning from the Stage Manager as to which way things are headed, the third act packs such a wallop. I don’t feel inclined to spoil the ending, even if 84 years is more than the statute of limitations on such things. Suffice to say that the change in direction and approach breaks away from the rest of the play in a sweetly stunning fashion, and there were at least a few tear-streaked faces when the lights came up.
Our Town speaks to human truths. They are simple, and not. And they are unique, and not. There is just this moment in time, and we are all just passing through.
Our Town runs through Oct. 16 at Asheville Community Theatre. For details and tickets, visit ashevilletheatre.org.
(Photo: Studio Misha)
