Our Town Play Summary

This is a review for the play Our Town produced by Northern Stage Theater White River Junction, VT. Our Town is a playwright by Thornton Wilde. Wilder explores human traditions and the steadfastness of natural environment. The people, the individual human lives in Our Town transient, are influenced greatly by the rapid passage of time. The Stage Manager often notes that time seems to pass quickly for the people in the play. At one point, having not looked at his watch for a while, the Stage Manager misjudges the time, which demonstrates that sometimes even the timekeeper himself falls victim to the passage of time. The play also explores the importance of companionship and the stages of life. Plays can often show many characteristics of human

life throughout many stages. This production of Our Town does this quite well because of its many experienced actors and how well the play was written. Some of the most noticeable experienced actors where, Stage Manager: John Hutton, Emily Webb: Sutton Crawford, George Gibbs: Casey Predovic, and rank Gibbs: Christian Kohn. All of them have been acting for many years and this made the play come to life. The plot of the play goes through many years representing the three separate parts of the play; Daily Life, Love and Marriage, Death and Dying. Each part encompasses many years and the different stages of life. The first part was more about what happened day by day acted out in a mime like way that made it believable. The second part is what happened three years after the first part of the play and the feelings George (Casey Predovic) and Emily (Sutton Crawford) had for each other. In the end of the second part they get married and live happily ever after… or so we think until we see nine years later. The third part looks at what happened and what is currently happening nine years later. Emily died from her second childbirth. This leads to us seeing her dead and her funeral. We see that the dead eventually get separated from the living and they can go back if they want to but it is better for them to “rest” because going back will just cause them pain. Good acting is hard but when it is done well it is truly amazing. In this production of Our Town all of the actors seemed truly authentic in their representation of the characters. From the way George (Casey Predovic) and Emily (Sutton Crawford) to how the Stage Manager: John Hutton acted seemed truly amazing. Their dedication made this play very enjoyable. One of my favorite parts was at the end of the second act where they all joined in on a dance.

It truly made the play come alive and it made the audience seem that they could just join in if they wanted to. The relationships seemed authentic and exactly the way I would have imagined them in real life. The actors spoke loud so everyone could hear well and nothing seemed

forced. Even when the Stage Manager: John Hutton made a mistake everyone kept their calm, showing once again how seasoned they were.

The stage and the surrounding help make a play what it is. Northern Stage Theater has a very nice setup and lighting. And also their sound setup is very well thought out. I know what it should be like from personal experience and what they did with it was very good. Also the lighting and how it could go up and down was also very good. Their choice of not using props was very original to the play and I think it made everyone focus more on the actors than on anything that they were doing. Their choice of using modern cloths was a nice touch because It allowed the spectators to connect more with the actors. My opinion of the play is that it was very well throughout and the actors did a nice job. They stuck true to the play with only a few modern touches. The audience seemed enthralled with the actors which made it easier to pay attention. I would have changed what they did with the slide show but I think they did everything else well. I would recommend everyone should see this performance. It really lets you experience the play to its fullest. I would even go and see it again if I

could.