Our Town
With so much buzz about Main Street lately, it’s easy to lose sight of the actual Main Streets that were the heart and soul, the very lifeline of communities across the country. These are the antiquated Main Streets of yesteryear, nostalgic of simpler times before GPS units or track housing developments. These were the Main Streets that going to was in of itself an event, an occasion for neighbors to chew the fat under the shade of a drug store awning. It was the crossroads of commerce, where Mom and Pop were the corporate giants. It was the intersections of faith, the cornerstone of news and information. It was the way back home, or the one that took us far from it.
The Actor’s Gang revival of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” is a poignant and refreshing reminder of these Main Streets that were and still are the backbone of this country and like the Main Street of Grover’s Corners is home to the familiar faces that are our own.
Just when one thinks there is nothing more that can be mined from this perennial gem, there’s always a production that comes around that challenges this. Under the sharp, sensitive direction of Justin Zsebe, the cast reintroduces the beloved townsfolk through a fresh, unsentimental perspective. With specific choices, the complexities of the characters resonate without patronizing their idyllic, homespun values. No subtly in the text is missed, it is exposed, and the play’s humor, tension, and humanity is fully realized as if blowing dust from the cover of an old, but favorite book.
Heightening the sense of a bygone era, Scenic Designer Will Pellegrini dresses the stage with a red velvet curtain and clamshell lights at the foot of the stage like something out of vaudeville. The minimal set required features the ladders on either side of the wings, at a daring height of twenty-give-or-take feet.
Music plays an important role on a piano in the hilarious introduction of inebriated--understandably so--choir director Simon Stimson (Brian Kimmet) in the first act and the moving funeral in the third. Reminiscent of old radio programs, sound effects created offstage such as warbling thunder, tinkling milk glasses, and Bessie the cow’s clip-clops are in sync with the miming action.
Lighting Design by Jacqueline Reid illuminates Wilder’s naturalistic themes throughout the show, particularly the all-important full moon, but her sparkling array of lights as the millions years worth of starlight beautifully closes the final act.
There is only one indulgence taken that does not seem in keeping with the feel of the production. An acrobatic display by Katie Malia as Rebecca Gibbs at the end of the first act does solve the troublesome staging problem in this particular scene, but it is completely incongruent and distracting. The sliding up and down, twisting all around a suspended sheet takes away from the speech, which Wilder must have felt superseded Rebecca’s awkward entrance. It is a bit too clever and artificial, unlike the ingenious swings used as graves in the third act.
Every actor in this cast proves there’s still some meat on these old bones to sink their teeth into. Lindsley Allen and Annemette Andersen as mothers Webb and Gibbs reveal under their tender natures fiercely intelligent, capable women with deep longings, loyal friendship and openly expressed opinions. Their counterpart husbands are equally as complicated, with Nathan Kornelis pivoting from stern reproach to gentle resistance, and Andrew E. Wheeler touching his heartwarming role with light moments of resignation and submission. Brian Kimmet seethes moodily in a frustrated, dark depression, and Scott Harris, solidly playing multiple roles as Constable Warren and Joe Stoddard pales to his sidesplitting Professor Willard.
Any good production can have a weak Emily and/or George, this production is no exception, but without a believable, likeable Stage Manager, the show might as well pack it in and head out of town. Steven M. Porter not only has the two essential qualities of the Stage Manager, but also more as a gentle yet persistent driving force that helms this production to even greater depths. Confident in the important spaces and moments between the text and scenes, Porter finds a wonderful rhythm and momentum as he takes excellent care with his pauses to emphasize certain words and important ideas that are at the heart, the crux of this play. Never forgetting the Stage Manager speaks directly to the audience, Porter creates an immediate connection with his audience, and maintains an easy, authoritative relationship throughout. Adaptable and responsive, he is consistently in tune with the audience, reacting and adjusting, even if it’s so much as a light sneeze. He is as strong as the best that have played this role and one of few that gives it such a meaningful sense of personal authenticity.
It has been Main Street against the rest of the country this past year, and will probably be for some time yet, but The Actor’s Gang takes us back to the true meaning of what Main Street is, what it was and what it will, hopefully, be in the not so distant future.
“Our Town”
Runs through June 6
Thurs, Fri and Sat at 8pm
Sundays at 2pm
The Actor’s Gang
Ivy Substation
9070 Venice Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
PH: 310-838-GANG
www.theactorsgang.com