Director Eric Davis takes several chances with his surprising version of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and precisely half of them pay off.
freeFall Theatre, 6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. Through Feb. 14. Wed. and Thurs., 7 p.m.; Fri. and Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 2 p.m. $33-$48. 727-498-5205. freefalltheatre.com
His decision to interrupt “realistic” scenes with a strange choreography suggestive of tai chi adds an eerie subterranean energy to the onstage action, and his nontraditional casting — three African-American actors play parts that usually go to lily-white performers — feels right for a 21st century version of this American classic. His decision to stage the show on a runway playing area between two banks of seats doesn’t work so well, though — it dissipates the tension one feels in a more conventional presentation — and his choice to let all his actors wear contemporary clothes is more confusing than helpful.
But whatever you may think of these departures from the norm, most of the freeFall Theatre version of Our Town is what Wilder intended: A luminous, detailed meditation on the miracle of ordinary life and death. This is theater that can change you, can make you reevaluate your whole existence, can bring you to tears even as it reminds you to cherish the joy of being alive. I recommend it enthusiastically to those who have never seen it performed, and to those who want the pleasure of once again learning from its wisdom.
If you’re in the first group, you need to know that the play has three acts, that it’s introduced and commented upon by a central figure called the Stage Manager (Bob Devin Jones, in an adequate but not very engaging performance), and that it focuses on two families in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire: The Gibbses and the Webbs. Act One shows us an ordinary morning for both of them, Act Two a marriage between them and Act Three a funeral involving them.
freeFall Theatre, 6099 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. Through Feb. 14. Wed. and Thurs., 7 p.m.; Fri. and Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 2 p.m. $33-$48. 727-498-5205. freefalltheatre.com
To say that not much more happens would be to miss the whole point: Wilder wants us to know that it’s the quotidian things, the repeated, expected things that are wondrous and inexplicable. He has a character say so directly toward the end of Act Three — but if you’re watching attentively, you already get that message early on, when Doc Gibbs (the charming Jim Braswell) is returning from delivering twins over in Polish Town, or when Mrs. Webb (Trenell Mooring, who scowls a little too often) is getting her children off to school.
There are a few other occurrences in the play — morning chatter between Mrs. Webb and her friend and neighbor Mrs. Gibbs (the impeccable Kelly Pekar), a lovely choir practice, led by alcoholic Simon Stimson (Nick Lerew, looking too young and healthy for the part), and some sibling exchanges between George and Rebecca Gibbs (the delightful Natalie Cottrill). The action is interrupted occasionally by the Stage Manager, who announces how much time has passed, tells us what will happen to these characters in the future, or introduces us to an expert like the local professor, played amiably by Jim Wicker.
But if there’s a single relationship in this production that etches itself upon the memory most indelibly, it must be the one between young George Gibbs (Taylor Simmons) and his bride-to-be, Emily Webb (Sarah McAvoy).
In the play’s charming second act, George is on the verge of going off to college when Emily confronts him about what she sees as a regrettable egotism that’s recently coarsened his personality. What’s really happening is that the two naïve teenagers are negotiating their future together; but, as played by Simmons and McAvoy, this fact is mostly kept unsaid. Instead, we witness a tense but tender exchange between two neighbors who are just about to realize that they mean more to each other than any other plans they might have. Wilder allows himself some homespun philosophizing around this time (as transmitted through the Stage Manager, doubling as the Minister): About how “people were made to live two-by-two.” Along with the Stage Manager’s later assertion that “there’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being,” we’re able to glimpse Wilder’s conviction that there are absolute truths in the universe, that what’s conventional and even trivial is, if we only knew it, momentous. As lovingly brought to our attention by Simmons and McAvoy, this message has a remarkable urgency.
But all of Our Town is a wonder, profound and commonplace at the same time, daring to insist that what’s commonplace is profound. Yes, even in this version, Grover’s Corners lacks a multicultural mix — there are no Jews, Irish, gays, or independent women in this view of America. Still, anyone who wants to know a key text in American theater should see it. It resembles nothing else. And 78 years after its first production, it’s obvious that it’s built to last.
This article appears in Jan 21-27, 2016.
