By John Quinn
Review: 'Our Town'
'Our Town' shines in Lansing
WHY "OUR TOWN"? Surely Thornton Wilder's calling card has been done to death by every high school drama club and community theater in America. So why has Lansing's BoarsHead Theater chosen to open its 38th season with this old chestnut?
Director John Peakes says it best: "It is one of the most perfect plays ever written. It's funny. It's haunting. It's about all of usÉ" In his skillful hands this groundbreaking work of American theater shines with a glow you didn't see in high school.
It's such a deceptively SIMPLE little play: The three acts recount a few days in the life of the townspeople in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, in the opening years of the 20th Century. There's no set, no props. There's "some trellises for those of you who need scenery." There's a lot of pantomime. The citizens seem aware that they are actors in a play, and we are led through the action by a narrator known only as the Stage Manager – who's not above stepping into a scene to become an extra character now and then.
In these, the opening years of the 21st Century, some of these theatrical conventions seem old hat, but this was radical stuff for 1938. To see "Our Town" is to see something new in American theater, a convention more interested in content than in form. It made the Pulitzer Prize committee sit up and take notice; "Our Town" won the prize for Drama in 1938.
This is not, however, some All-American nostalgia piece. It's been successfully produced all around the world and is easy to translate into other cultures. As Wilder himself wrote in a 1938 preface: "'Our Town' is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire village or as a speculation about the conditions of life after death (that element I merely took from Dante's Purgatory). It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life."
The current production is graced by a talented cast, led – appropriately enough – by Director John Peakes as the Stage Manager. Catch this actor soon; the Peakes are leaving us for the East Coast, and we don't often see his like around these parts. Peakes work is a gracious going-away present.
The lovely Kendrah McKay gives a powerful performance as Emily Gibbs, the character we follow from the blossoming of womanhood, through marriage and beyond. The third act action falls heavily to Emily, and in this production it shines.
Also of note is the appearance of perennial favorite Carmen Decker as the busybody Mrs. Soames, a charming comic turn.
During the run of "Our Town," the BoarsHead company is paying tribute to Lansing, "their town." Selected performances have been designated Community Nights, which showcase different elements of Lansing's society. October 4 will be Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered Night. It's nice to be recognized as part of the town.
Our Town Staged Wednesday through Sunday at the BoarsHead Theatre, 425 S. Grand Ave., Lansing, through Oct. 26. Tickets: $19 – $29. 517-484-7805. www.boarshead.org
The Bottom Line: The BoarsHead production is a stellar tribute to an American classic.
