By Jennifer Mustoe and Chelsea Benjamin
On the way to see Our Town, I told Chelsea I felt like such a chump. I’m a Humanities graduate, love American literature and have a passion for theater and yet knew almost nothing about Our Town. She admitted she knew nothing, either. (But the fact that she is over 30 years younger than I am makes me the bigger chump, I think.)
So I am very pleased that my first Our Town was at Salt Lake Community College’s Grand Theater. I love this theater and was happy to be back. I saw last year’s amazing Death of a Salesman at the same theater, so I was ready to be amazed.
Our Town is not a dazzling show, if what you want is Big, Flashy, Loud, Outlandish or Uncommon. In fact, it is about a common town, with common people, living common lives. It sort of reminded me of Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs, another nice, quiet piece of American literature, as familiar as apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
What makes Our Town sing is how it all layers together. The set is very sparse. This isn’t because there is a small budget for the set decoration. This is as the playwright, Thornton Wilder, scripted it. Set decoration by Halee Rasumssen and lighting by Spencer Brown were fabulous. The set, though sparse, had an amazing backdrop and the starlit sky was beautiful. Sound by Joe Killian was great, too.
The Stage Manager/Narrator, played by Robert Scott Smith, takes us through the play, pointing out houses here, churches there, all in our imaginations. But we can picture them in our minds as we’ve seen them all many times on many road trips to many small towns. Smith is such a good actor, I wanted to take him home and introduce him to all my friends because he was clearly my new best friend. He radiates love of town, love of people, friendly love period. He plays several other small parts and each one was a completely different character, though all he changed was his voice, facial expressions and posture.
Our Town is basically the story of two families, the Gibbs and the Webbs, who live next door to each other. I don’t want to tell any of the story, so I will simply say that these families are onstage the most. Daniel Beecher as Dr. Gibbs was very well done, especially after I saw him in the hall later and thought, hey, he isn’t old! He sure acted old. I mean this in a good way. Mrs. Gibbs, played by Julie Silvestro Waite was equally fine. She can holler, that one, and every time she did, we laughed. We’ve all been that mother, seen that mother, or been mothered by that mother. Their son George, played by Cody V. Thompson, was so believable. I found I liked George a great deal. My only concern is he looked older than the teenager he was supposed to be in earlier scenes and wondered why he didn’t have a baseball cap on or something to young him down a little. George was purported to be quite the baseball player.
The Webbs next door had their own dad, Mr. Webb, played by David Hanson. I loved Hanson’s character and loved Hanson’s performance. There was something about him that made me just want him to by my next door neighbor. I’ll admit it, all the leads’ characters were people I’d love to have as neighbors, which speaks well of their performances. Mrs. Webb, another hollering mother (I loved this!) played by Betsy West, was fantastic. As she shucked her invisible beans, I could practically hear them snap. Emily Webb, their daughter, played by Haeleigh Royall did well as she went from child to adult.
The play is three acts, Act One in 1901, Act Two in 1904, and Act Three in 1913, so the youngsters in the play (George and Emily) had to grow up and both actors did this well. The time the play took place gave me a moment’s pause, as the costumes, by Amanda Reiser, were more 1950s. I wondered if I had read it wrong about 1901, but then heard the Stage Manager mention horses and buggies. I admit, I thought this costuming choice a little odd, as there were also people in modern dress, so I was a little confused. I imagine the idea behind this was, though Our Town is set in the early 1900s, it could be today in theme and even some story lines.
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Last year’s Death of a Salesman was directed by Mark Fossen and Fossen directed Our Town as well. I realized how amazing his direction was about halfway through the show, when I realized how much movement was going on onstage and it all looked so completely natural. It takes work to make things look so normal!
My only real concerns were that I couldn’t always hear some of the dialogue, and a few actors spoke so quickly I lost some of what they said.
Our Town introduces many other characters in bits and pieces and they all felt like someone I’d either known once upon a time or would like to know now. I’m sure that’s what Thornton Wilder wanted. He wasn’t out to shock us. He was out to teach us. The lesson we learn is: pay attention to your life, with all its ups and downs. And be grateful for it, while you’re at it. I certainly appreciated that message. And appreciated very much this wonderful, touching production. Bravo!
January 23 – February 8
$10-$24
Evenings: 7:30 pm
Saturday Matinees: 2 pm
The Grand Theater
1575 S State St., Salt Lake City, UT
www.the-grand.org
My wife and I agree with the review and were captivated by the casting, and will be taking some of our Kids to see it again, before he sadly closes on the 8th. Have heard about the play for many years and the first time either of us have seen it and Love the Grand Theater.
You will love it!