Photo via Stage Photography of Tampa
Back Row L – R: Joshua Goff, Jaiden Gray, Alli Bica, Jim Wicker, Hugh Timoney, Noah Allen Wally, JL Rey. Front Row: Lena Morisseau, Alshlin Lian Sullivan, Jessie Dorsey, Jessica Moraton.
It’s not surprising that Wilder’s most acclaimed play with plain-spoken philosophical observations on love and marriage, life and death is ostensibly a very white play. It was written in 1938 pre-World War II and long before the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It’s set, of course, in the fictional Grover Corners, New Hampshire just after the turn of the 20th century from 1901 through 1913. The world of these United States pre-World War I was not exactly a haven for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Much like Florida in 2024.
This production, however, is from a 2017 three language multicultural makeover of Wilder’s gently lyrical Pulitzer-prize-winning masterpiece—performed primarily in English, plus short segments spoken in Spanish or Creole with English surtitles. Director Karla Hartley offers that the play is “about generosity and kindness, and kinship. [It] shows that you can embrace your community no matter how it looks and as a society, I think we need to re-discover that.” Dominating the action is Jim Wicker’s Stage Manager who is exquisitely calibrated as to seem effortless. He’s folksy, relaxed and totally winning even in his direct address to the audience breaking the fourth wall.
The two pairs of parents anchor the narrative. Particularly strong are JL Rey (Mr. Webb) and Josh Goff (Dr. Gibbs). Both actors know how to command attention and make the most of their stage time. Jessica Moraton (Mrs. Webb) and Lena Morisseau (Mrs. Gibbs) handle their bi-lingual dialogue fluidly and convincingly.
Hartly also casts others against convention. Emily and George, the smitten ingenues (Jessie Dorsey and Jaiden Gray) are atypical, but always endearing and supporting actor Alli Bica is a gender-bending, generation-hopping delight in several roles, which works so well because she grounds her several characters and finds the simple essence of each role playing them “straight” while still eliciting laughs. What might seem odd or amateurish otherwise is totally believable. Hugh Timoney is equally fine in multiple roles from the milkman to the alcoholic church organist.
Joseph P. Oshry has demonstrated his skill as one of the region’s premiere lighting designers and has the awards to show for it. His work here covers the arc of the action. But, given the deliberately stripped down scenic demands, there’s an obvious opportunity to skew toward some overtly dramatic images, which he and director Harley have chosen to ignore or, perhaps, are hamstrung because the floor to ceiling surtitle screen doesn’t lend itself to mood-establishing color washes.
Maggie Council DiPietra’s sound design and original music are spot on and perfectly timed to reinforce the Stage Manager’s descriptions which vividly establish place and the time-jumping narrative. Unfortunately, the thunder and lightning that begins the last act overwhelmed some of the subtler moments—at least on opening night.
There’s a large burden placed on Lindsay Ellis’s period costumes and the minimal furniture which comprises Hartley’s set. Even though the design scheme is deliberately limited and the themes cross the decades, the play is still set prior to WWI and both areas contain elements outside of the time frame.
While the play’s heartfelt universal themes are indeed absolutely timeless, much of the episodic narrative which must have seemed odd to pre-war audiences, now just seems, to me, creaky and anachronistic to modern sensibilities. Post 1968 with the advent of reliable contraception, the sexual revolution, and the demand for women's equal rights, the oppressive nature of women’s roles in society and the across the board reluctance to address the “wedding night” (wink, wink) seems laughable to modern ears in the age of Tinder.
Conversely, and surprisingly, despite the country being built on WASP supremacy, morphing the two families from historical WASPs to Haitian-American and Hispanic-Americans, doesn’t seem at all radical. In fact, Stageworks’ first trilingual production (as director Hartley wryly points out in her pre-show curtain speech) seems perfectly natural, which speaks well for our glacial progress as “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Obviously, embracing diversity builds empathy and breaks down the prejudice born from fear of the “other.” Sadly, this seems to be a natural human tendency that bridges world cultures. The rise of Christian nationalism at the core of the MAGA movement threatens our democracy. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters are on the verge of assembling the power to change their constitution to enshrine Hindu supremacy and marginalize Muslims. Not to mention the intractable conundrum that is Gaza. Seamlessly injecting diversity into a revered American classic like “Our Town,” elevates a viewpoint that removes the inherited blinders from our eyes. We see clearly and unequivocally that diversity is a gift. And despite my qualms, the Boomer couple that joined me left with tears.
Wilder was inspired by a visit to Roman ruins and the epiphany that “human lives across centuries are universally conjoined by certain personal moments and milestone events.”
For me, what resonated strongly as we gallop toward an election that will decide between authoritarianism and democracy is the Stage Manager’s pithy observation that “wherever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense . . .”
Tickets to see "Our Town" at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa on select nights through May 12 are still available and start at $25.
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