Our Town: A Play in Three Acts

Our Town: A Play in Three Acts by Thornton Wilder (1938; republished by Longman, Green & Co. , 1956) 129 pp.

I picked up an old volume of this play at the Victoria College Book Sale, an annual event that I have come to enjoy since having started working at the university. The university has four annual sales at four different colleges: Victoria, University, Trinity and St. Michael's Colleges - Trinity being the best I think.

I love this volume published in 1956: faded green cloth hard bound covers and yellowed, slightly brittle pages with that old book smell.

I didn't know much about the play aside from the fact that it is the American play most often produced (for the first time in 1938) and I really didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised by the modernist structure of the play.

The audience is directly addressed by the "Stage Manager" who serves almost as a Greek chorus to the events that take place effectively smashing the fourth wall. The stage is minimal, the scenery almost non-existent - one must imagine all that is described to you. The Stage Manager is akin to a "homespun philosopher" or perhaps one of Shakespeare's fools - commenting on the plot's development.

Each of the three acts describes different phases in the life of the Wells and the Gibbs families, in 1901 in the sleepy little town of Grover's Corners in New Hampshire. It briefly chronicles the lives of Emily Wells and George Gibbs from youth until the death of one of the partners: youth, marriage, death, in three acts.

The play appears to have been written by Wilder in response to over elaborate stagings of drama produced in the 1930s according to the introduction of the play. Let the characters and the story tell you what the story is about not the costumes and the set ... Wilder rejects the "picture frame" stage as the introduction describes it.

Act One opens in a small town in New Hampshire at the turn of the 19th c. The town is comprised of simple folk: WASPy, down home, simple, in the best sense of the word. Milk is delivered by horse and cart, the town drunkard whom no one chastises plays the organ at the Congregationalist church, doors are left unlocked, everyone knows everyone else including all their flaws and problems. Sometimes the small town witticisms rankle this city girl's cynical ears but we are meant to see these people as uncomplicated and disarming.

The Stage Manager introduces the Gibbs and the Wells families. George Gibbs and Emily Wells are very young and you see the sparks of their future relationship here. She is the brightest girl in her class; he wants to work on his uncle's farm after attending agricultural college.

The sets are exceedingly simple: two ladders represent George and Emily in their respective rooms doing homework, a row of chairs representing the church sequence, etc ...

In Act Two, the two young people fall in love and marry. The scenes are honestly portrayed. The parents have misgivings as do the bride and groom who have cold feet at the altar. Emily wears only a veil as a symbol of the wedding ceremony. There are frequent flashbacks which provide a back story for the characters' growing attachment prior to their engagement.

In Act Three, the action takes a dramatic and unusual turn away from the realistic. Nine years later, Emily has died in childbirth after the birth of her second child. As the scene opens we are confronted with a row of chairs holding the dead who survey and comment on Emily's funeral. And they are vocal. And dismissive about the living and their "blindness" to the afterlife.

George's mother is there as is Simon Stimson, the town drunkard, and Mrs. Soames, a lady who attended Emily and George's funeral. Emily soon joins this group, somewhat dazed, as if she has not quite navigated the trip from the living to the dead. She watches her husband and family at the ceremony and begs to return for one more day.

The dead discourage her by telling her that she will regret it because she will always carry the knowledge of her death with her into the past life. Despite their warnings, Emily insists and returns for a day - for a specific moment - the morning of her 12th birthday, a day of great joy for her. But it is too painful. It is painful for the reader as well as.

Emily retreats to the world of the dead, consoled by the others and now accepting her new existence. It is an intriguing mix of realsitic drama with the fantastic and an utter surprise for me, a novice to this genre.

Romeo e Giulietta 2

Hmm, spring is here! Time to expose the offspring to Stratford ... I thought Romeo and Juliet might be a good idea as it is a well known plot. We read a kids' version of the play together before we went to Stratford.

Once upon a time I asked my significant other why he didn't seem to enjoy the Stratford Festival (note, he says he no longer feels this way). He said it reminded him of ... and I'm quoting: "death" because the average age of the theater goer seemed to be in the 70s. This is a gross exaggeration; however, I know what he's talking about. But the demographic does seem to be changing a bit. The more serious fare attracts an older audience. Unless we wanted see Cynthia Dale (which we did NOT) the audience did tend to be older in the productions we selected.

Every year I would talk him into going to see a play close to my birthday in June. Hey, I'm an open minded gal, I even let him pick the production. Now we choose with the offspring in mind: can she understand/withstand this production? Can we find a children's version she can read before we go? Two years ago we saw Twelfth Night which she seemed to enjoy. Fortuitously there is an Amanda Bynes movie which follows this plot called "She's the Man" which we all loved, adults included. Last year it was Comedy of Errors. She seems to fare best with the comedies.

So it was Romeo and Juliet this year. The director Des McAnuff made interesting choices in the staging and costuming. For instance, in the opening scene where we see the warring Montagues and Capulets, the actors are dressed as if they are on the set of La Dolce Vita circa 1960 complete with shades, slick suits, windbreakers and a vespa on stage. When the Capulet clan prepares for the masque they slowly change into traditional, and very beautiful I might add, clothing which they retain until the final scene (Paul Tazewell was the Costume Designer).

In the final scene when we see the devastation wrought by the warring families in Juliet's tomb, the clothing is vaguely, just vaguely, 40s noir. Someone suggested that this was meant to signify the universality of this prejudice and hate (it can be found everywhere at all times) but I found the effect disorienting.

The designer had dressed the Montagues in various shades of blue, the Capulets in reds and pinks, all beautifully done, exquisitely done.

I loved the idea of colour blind casting which fits in perfectly with the theme of the star crossed lovers. This production featured a black Juliet (Nikki M. James), making her Stratford debut, and a white Romeo (Gareth Potter) and both had, interestingly, both a black and a white parent.

Juliet seemed more overwrought than overcome with passion. Although Juliet is only meant to be 14 in the play (impossible to cast I know), even this young actress seemed too old to play the ingenue. Gareth Potter was charismatic and vibrant as Romeo even if he did not have the classic good looks for the part. But there lacked a certain indefinable chemistry between the lovers.

Ever the superficial theater goer I said to J, our daughter, that we should try and find a better looking Romeo in the cast and to my surprise saw the name of ex-co-worker Azeem Nathoo in a largely non-speaking role. What a nice surprise!

Evan Buliung as Mercutio is particularly appealing. There is something about his physicality and spirit which seems reminiscent perhaps of the original bawdiness of many Shakespearean characters.

Peter Donaldson as Friar Laurence, Gordon S. Miller as Benvolio were self-assured, confident in their command of the parts as was Lucy Peacock, Nurse to Juliet. John Vickery as Lord Capulet grated on the husband but I preferred him to Sophia Walker as Lady Capulet whom we have seen in previous Stratford productions and seems to shriek all of her lines as a way of showing emotion.

The Set Designer Heidi Ettinger cleverly utilizes a medieval bridge to double (triple) as Juliet's balcony, the Capulet tomb where Juliet is buried, and a bridge where the feuding families run to and fro tormenting each other with abuse and blows.

A very cool May day on which to visit Stratford; the lovely swans were out in full force. We admired from afar remembering a nasty episode where one tried to bite me because (I think) he or she thought I was trying to to take its food when I was trying to feed the greedy so and so.

We had dinner at Down the Street, a small restaurant which we love for its food and cordiality.

All seemed pleased, the reluctant spouse, the slightly bored tweenie who did her best to keep up with the play and mama who forced them all to come out and play.

P.S. It looks like someone agrees with me in part about this production, see Richard Ouzounian's critique of the production at Foiled by Star-crossed lovers.

Romeo e Giulietta 101

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1595) re-published by Arden Editions 1996 edited by Brian Gibbons

Who would dare critique the master? Not I. With a Stratford production of Romeo and Juliet looming I wanted to reread the play. Instead I will concentrate on the origins of the play, which are, not surprisingly, mostly Italian in origin. This information is all derived from the Arden edition of the play and edited by Brian Gibbons.

A fragment of the plot can be found in the Greek play Ephesiaca by Xenophon (I have read that he lived in the 2nd, 3rd or 5th c. A.D.). It tells the story of Anthia, who is separated from her husband Habrocomes and is rescued from robbers by her admirer Perilaus. To avoid marrying her rescuer, Anthia obtains a potion which she hopes will kill her; it is actually a sleeping potion. She is buried in a tomb, awakens and is carried off by tomb-robbers to enjoy "other adventures".

But it is not until the late 15th c. when Masuccio Salernitano included a story with elements of the themes found in Romeo and Juliet that we would recognize today in the 33rd of his Cinquante Novelle (1476). The story is set in Siena. Mariotto secretly marries Giannozza with the assistance of a compliant Friar. Mariotto kills a citizen and then is exiled to Alexandria. Giannozza is pressured to marry but instead she decides to take a sleeping potion and sends a message to Mariotto. She is buried and rescued from the tomb by the Friar. She sets sail for Alexandria in search of Mariotto but her message is never delivered. Mariotto returns to Siena disguised. Thinking her dead, he enters her tomb, is caught and beheaded for his desecration. Giannozza returns to Siena, learns of his death and dies of grief in a convent, like any nice Italian girl would do.

In his writings, Masuccio stressed that the story was based on real events which happened during the course of his life.

Luigi da Porto (1485-1529) revisited the plot in Historia Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti (A Story Newly Found of Two Noble Lovers) published in 1530. He set the story in Verona and renamed the lovers Romeo Montecchi and Giulietta Capelletti perhaps utilizing the surnames of two very real warring families in the 13th c. although the Montecchi family lived in Verona and the Capelletti family was from Cremona and there was no romance between characters of these names. Dante mentions the surnames of the two families in his Purgatori VI as an example of civil unrest.

da Porto invented Friar Lorenzo (Friar Laurence), Marcuccio (Mercutio), Thebaldo (Tybalt) and the Conte di Lodrone (renamed Paris). His plot perhaps most resembles Shakespeare's.

Matteo Bandello (c. 1480 – 1562), an Italian novelist, published his version of the da Porto story in 1554 which was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau, a French author, editor, translator, in 1559.

The English poet Arthur Brooke translated this into a 3,020 line poem (1562) as The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet which is likely the version that Shakespeare read.

Some thoughts on the performance to follow ... all drama leads to Italia!

Top these Girls if you can

Top Girls, soulpepper, Michael Young Theatre (June 26 - August 18, 2007)

In the 1980s my partner R went to England and saw a British production of Top Girls in London at the Royal Court Theatre and saved the playbill for me. I was so intrigued with the painting (of, I believe, the unfortunate queen Anne Boleyn) on the playbill that I always kept it, hanging it in my office wherever I worked. I was excited to see it in soulpepper theatre's line up this year ... oddly, R not so much. Perhaps it was a case of been there done that. But I decided to surprise him and take him to see this production anyway.

The structure of the play is non-linear, set in Britain during the beginning of the Thatcher years and fully gives vent to Caryl Churchill's rage against Margaret Thatcher and her embrace of Reaganomics and what Churchill perceives that it had done to the British psyche creating an atmosphere of avarice and callous disregard for the underprivileged amongst the more privileged.

What I remember best, and cherish most, about the play is its dreamlike opening sequence. Marlene (Megan Follows pictured above), an aggressive employment recruiter at the Top Girls employment agency, has recently been promoted to an executive position and sits down to a meal with a number of famous women, real and fictional, from history to celebrate.

These women include Pope Joan (Ann Marie McDonald), who, disguised as a man, may have been pope in the 9th c. (it is uncertain if she really existed); the explorer Isabella Bird; the character of Dull Gret (Liisa Repo-Martell) based on the subject of the painting Dulle Griet by Pieter Breughel; Lady Nijo (Robyn Stevan), mistress of a Japanese emperor; and Patient Griselda (Cara Pifko), the wife in The Clerk's Tale from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

They drink and revel in telling their personal histories each revealing one story more horrific than the last. The dialogue often overlaps, you need to listen with care that you don't miss the revelations that come fast and furious. Here is where I falter a bit with Churchill's political message: are we meant to infer that Marlene's sacrifices (more on that anon) are equal to that of the other characters' which include: Pope Joan's murder by an enraged crowd when it was discovered that she was a female; Isabella Bird's sacrifices as a mother in order that she may pursue her dreams of exploration; Gret who in the Breughel painting "lead a mob of other women dressed in aprons, charging into Hell fighting the devils"; Lady Nijo's life as a concubine whose children were forcibly taken from her; the fictional Griselda, a poor peasant chosen to be the wife of a Marquis if she promised to obey him always including accepting he removal of her two children whom she presumed to be dead.

In Act I, scene 2, we meet Angie (Liisa Repo Martell), Marlene's angry, volatile and may I say, none too bright, niece trapped in a small town outside of London and living with Joyce (Kelli Fox), Marlene's older sister whom the girl hates and openly speaks of killing. Repo-Martell is such an oddly compelling actress, excelling in these slightly disturbed lost girl roles. But she doesn't evoke sympathy, it's more like fear that she'll cut your throat if you turn your back - that's how powerful her anger is on stage. Kelli Fox is utterly convincing as the sister who is left behind with a child that hates her, a husband that abandons her and a sister who does not condescend to be with her either.

In the employment agency we see the machinations of the recruiters: the women clients cannot be married if employed, one is told she is too old to be a manager, and a host of other derogatory things are said or implied including Marlene hearing a complaint from the wife of a man whom Marlene has beat out for her promotion asking her to be gentle with him as he is depressed over the turn of events. In the midst of this, Marlene is surprised to see Angie appear at the office looking for shelter and a job much to the amusement of the other women. No assurances are made except for the offer of a temporary place on the couch.

It is only in Act II, scene II, which takes place a year before the previous two acts, that we learn that Marlene, not Joyce, is Angie's mother. Marlene has returned to visit with gifts because Angie has sent messages "from" Joyce asking her to visit. Angie is thrilled, Joyce not so much. I have read that Churchill was inspired by conversations with American feminists who celebrated individual achievements by women who gain wealth and power versus the socialist feminism of British women who strove for collective gain and progress. That dichotomy is played out between the two sisters in the last act.

Both sisters are utterly miserable and bitter. Joyce, because she has few options and Marlene, because she has so many and is still unhappy. This scene picks up on a decades old political quarrel between the sisters. Marlene is the prototypical obnoxious promoter of Thatcher's policies; Joyce is a left of centre politically aware member of the underclass who resents Marlene's freedom and sheer disregard for those who are not as fortunate as she is. The argument is overlaid by the classic career versus children debate. Follows tends to be shrill in her delivery (or maybe it's her politics as the character) but Fox never falters.

The question seems a bit dated now ... are we still arguing about whether it is possible to have both career and children? Aren't many of us doing precisely that now? Sometimes badly, sometimes with great strain, but it is being done at least here in the West. That is not to say that we don't need feminist principles or that all we need to do has been accomplished. But maybe what appeared thrilling and revolutionary 25 years ago, now seems a bit like preaching to the converted.