[NEohioPAL]Berko review: OUR TOWN

[Roy Berko]

CLASSICAL ‘OUR TOWN’ SHINES AT ENSEMBLE

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
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I was once asked what was my favorite play.  My mind
scrolled through ‘DEATH OF A SALESMAN,’ ‘GLASS
MENAGERIE,’ ‘DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, and ‘AH,
WILDERNESS.’  But, when my mouth opened the response
was ‘OUR TOWN.’  ‘OUR TOWN,’ Thornton Wilder’s
brilliant play which has become one of the most
performed and studied plays in the English language
and garnered the author the coveted Pulitzer Prize as
the best play of the 1938 season.   

On the surface the play appears to be a rendition of
the daily activities found in small town America in
the first third of the twentieth century.   In
reality, it is a tribute to basic humanistic views of
life.   Each time I see, direct, teach or have
appeared in the play I bask in the after-glow and find
myself a better person.  

Wilder, who was brought up in Hong Kong and China, was
imbued with the Asian perfectionist attitude.  His
education at Oberlin and Yale centered on the
classics.  These influences are deeply imbedded into
the ‘OUR TOWN’ script.  The stage manager represents
the classical Greek chorus and the guide in Asian
theatrical forms.   The direct speeches to the
audience create a theatricalism that stops the viewers
from transferring their thoughts to the play’s
characters and focuses their thoughts on themselves. 
He is exact in his descriptions of the sun rising and
setting and where stores and houses are placed on the
stage.

Interestingly, the exactness is misleading.  Wilder
states that Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, where the
play takes place, is located at 42 degrees, 40 minutes
latitude and 70 degrees, 37 minutes.  Exact?   Hardly.
 That would place the city somewhere in the middle of
the Arctic Belt.  In another scene, Mrs. Webb and Mrs.
Gibbs are stringing beans.  Sorry, but beans don’t
grow in New Hampshire in May.   Why does Wilder do
this?  He wants the play to carry a universal message.
 This is not about the existence of those in Grover’s
Corners, it is about all of us, all of our lives.

‘OUR TOWN’ appears to be so simple to stage because it
requires almost no props or sets.  What a good
production requires is adherence to Wilder’s brilliant
words, and that is often difficult for some theatres. 

Ensemble Theatre, which has grown so much in its
transition to the Cleveland Play House setting, has
produced another winner with their version of ‘OUR
TOWN.’  With the exception of her decision to combine
acts two and three and some questionable use of
accents, director Lucia Colombi displays a fine
understanding of the play.   

Wilder divided the play into three segments, each with
a clear title:  Act I:  Daily Life, Act II:  Love and
Marriage and Act II:  Death.  He did this with
purpose.  Why Colombi decided to wipe out the
emotional bridge from love and marriage to death, is
inconceivable.   In addition, consistent accents are
mandatory in order to maintain the finite development
of the script.  These are people who lived their
entire lives in the same place.  Their sound much be a
consistent New England twang. 

The Ensemble cast is generally excellent.  Ron Newell
is wonderful as the Stage Manager.  His easy attitude
and New England practicality come through loud and
clear.  In major roles, Julia Kolibab as Mrs. Webb,
Tom Kondilas as George Biggs, Robert Hawkes as Dr.
Biggs, and Ron Miller, as Mr. Webb are rock solid.  
Unfortunately, Valerie Young’s Kathryn Hepburn
imitation distracted from the reality of Mrs. Webb.

Bernadette Clemens seemed too old and aloof as the
young Emily of Act I, but she grew beautifully into
the role as the play developed.  Her “goodbye to life”
speech in the third act was superlative.  How can
anyone not be touched by her plaintiff question, “Do
people ever really appreciate life when they’re living
it?” Or, the answer, “Some,  saints and poets, maybe.”
 

Harlowe R. Hoyt, in his review of a production of ‘OUR
TOWN’ at the Jewish Community Center, stated in the
April 25, 1958 Plain Dealer, “The burgeoning of love
at the soda fountain between Ilene Latter and Roy
Berko is one of the most delightful scenes of the
play.”  Of Tom Kondilas and Bernadette Clemens
enactment of the same scene I say, “ditto!”

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  If you’ve never seen ‘OUR TOWN,’
or if you need a good shot of appreciation for life,
go see the Ensemble production.  You won’t be sorry!

‘OUR TOWN’ continues in the Brooks Theatre in the
Cleveland Play House complex through September 26. 
For ticket information call 216-321-2930.


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Roy Berko's web page can be found at royberko.info and many of his theatre and dance reviews appear on artscleveland.net.


		
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