Our Town, the classic play by Thornton Wilder, opened at the Heritage Playhouse last week. Or rather, the play gently unfolded in a slow-paced recounting of the births, marriages and deaths in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, at the start of the 20th century.
After we enjoyed stellar performances from many of the large cast, especially Chatelech Secondary School student Jess Borthwick and her stage swain Steven Hill, Susan Beer as narrator, Melissa DiPietro and Daniel Tyrell as Mr. and Mrs. Webb, the question arises: can a play first performed in 1938, though Pulitzer Prize winning, have anything to teach us today? In my opinion, the answer is no. Others have conveyed the same message more recently - cherish life because it is over too soon - in ways that are more meaningful to us in the 21st century.
However, there are other good reasons to see this play. There is terrific direction from Ingrid Bilton, engaging characters in period costumes and gentle enjoyment captured lovingly by the entire Driftwood Players cast.
Think how difficult it is to rivet an audience's attention with a line like, "Come and see my heliotrope, dear." Yet Susan Rule, as the open-hearted Mrs. Gibbs, manages to capture the audience and breathe life into her character with a luminous intensity as she accompanies her doctor husband (Greig Soohen) into the garden. During the third act, when the play crosses into pure 1930s' melodrama, Rule and Borthwick manage to bring it back to size with their simple stage dynamic.
Other smaller roles such as the milkman with the weather eye (Bob Dall), the town drunk (Rod Olafson) and the annoying younger sister (Alexa Houle) were also worth the $20 ticket price (youth and students $10). Romantics will want to watch the chaste love scene in the soda shop between Borthwick and Hill, surely a classic.
Our Town runs tonight (Friday) and Saturday at 8 p.m. and again April 3 and 4 with matinées this Sunday and on Saturday, April 4 at 2 p.m.
