THEATER REVIEW: OUR TOWN

The Actors’ Gang is just Wilder about Thornton

By Ed Rampell

When I think of the Actors’ Gang, I conjure up visions of Clifford Odets storming the theatrical barricades with agitprop, such as the Gang’s productions of the antiwar dramas, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and Bury the Dead. So my curiosity was piqued by my favorite theater company’s decision to present Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Our Town, for which the playwright deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize (Wilder also won a 1928 Pulitzer for his novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey). How would this quiet (except, perhaps, for Brian Kimmet’s drolly played not-so-simple Simon Stimson, the high strung church organist and village drunkard) play fit in with the rallying cry canon of the Gang? I was curious to see Wilder get the Gang treatment.

As opposed to the rootin’ tootin’ rousing call of arms in Gang productions such as the Iraq War farce Embedded by artistic director Tim Robbins, Our Town is a philosophical look at small town Americana, and at the big questions of love, life and death. Over the course of three acts the action takes place in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, following a series of hayseed New Englanders from 1901 to 1913.

This latter date is key to understanding both Wilder’s original intent, as well as why the usually actor provocateur Gang chose to stage this period piece many regard as “quaint.” In 1913 both the Federal Reserve and income tax were introduced, and the planet was perched on the precipice of World War I. Wilder’s drama subtly shows America’s transition from a rural to an industrialized and increasingly globalized nation, as automobiles replaced horses in what was rapidly becoming more and more of a consumer society. This is the nub of why the Gang finds Our Town to be relevant now – it’s their contention that today, as we confront capitalism’s collapse that we, too, stand on the brink.

The Stage Manager (expertly, adroitly drawn by Gang stalwart Steven M. Porter) who breaks the fourth wall by directly talking to the audience while narrating Our Town says: “They’re waitin’ for something that they feel is comin’.” The Gang asserts that we are, too. The play’s relevancy also lies in its daring to ask those big eternal, existential questions underlying our lives: “What’s it all about? What does it mean?” Still relevant to ask, long after that medieval morality play, Everyman, asked (and unlike Wilder) answered those questions centuries ago.

The multiple character cast includes Andrew E. Wheeler (another Gang veteran who recently rocked the rafters as one of the prophetic Berrigan Brothers in Catonsville) as Mr. Webb, editor of the Grover's Corners Sentinel. In Embedded and offstage, Robbins has been extremely (and justifiably) critical of what passes for a media whose nose for news has been notoriously stuffed, when it comes to coverage (or lack of) of current events such as the Iraq War. So it is particularly interesting to see his theater company’s depiction of a turn-of-the-century journalist, who is sort of the town intellectual, while today’s pundits are often the village idiots who would probably perform character assassination on contemporary Wilders, just as they tried to do to Robbins and his partner, actor Susan Sarandon, for having the temerity of exercising their constitutional rights, and even worse, as things turned out, being factually correct in their dissent. (Say, where are those WMDs, anyway? Has Bush searched Grover’s Corners yet?)

Deftly directed by Justin Zsebe, the expert ensemble cast includes Chris Schultz as George Gibbs, who literally romances the girl next door, a winsome, wistful Vanessa Mizzone as Emily Webb. The play follows them from childhood to becoming sweethearts to, literally, the great beyond. While the second act may initially seem slight, in fact, when seen in the context and totality of the entire drama, it deeply adds to Our Town’s overall impact.

The spectral third act is visually realized by the scenic, lighting and costume designers -- Will Pellegrini, Jacqueline Reid and Suzanne Scott -- and is an optical tour-de-force that fully realizes Wilder’s vision. Our Town insists that everyday life is full of miracles, and that we should value each and every moment, and it is in this transcendental sense that I cherish the experience of seeing the Gang’s thought-and emotion-provoking production of this classic.

Our Town plays through June 6 at the Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. For more info: (310)838-GANG; http://www.theactorsgang.com/.