Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938) is quite possibly the most frequently produced play by any American playwright. Its simple story and likeable characters touched audiences immediately on its debut. The play is most noteable for two new innovations, its staging and its use of the character of the Stage Manager. The staging was sparse and almost completly lacked props; it relies instead on pantomime for its scenery and effects. The handeling of the character of the Stage Manager was another new convention. The character served as a presentational narrator that interacts both with the audience and the action of the play. The Stage Manager brings the deceptively simple construction of the play together to form a greater commentary on humanity as well as theatre. Though Wilder never cited it, this character must have been influenced by Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. In 1938 Our Town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Our Town

• A Play By Thornton Wilder

Main Characters

The Stage Manager

George Gibbs

Emily Webb

Mrs. Julia Gibbs

Dr. Frank Gibbs

Mrs. Myrtle Webb

Mr. Charles Webb

Supporting Characters

Howie Newsome

Joe Crowell

Si Crowell

Rebecca Gibbs

Wally Webb

Professor Willard

Simon Stimson

Mrs. Soames

Constable Warren

Sam Craig

Joe Stoddard

Act One

known as “Daily Life”

The play is introduced and narrated by the Stage Manager, who welcomes the audience to the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, early on a May morning in 1901. In the opening scene, the stage is largely empty, except for some tables and chairs that represent the homes of the Gibbs and Webb families, the setting of most of the action in Act I. The set remains sparse throughout the rest of the play.

After the Stage Manager’s introduction, the activities of a typical day begin. Howie Newsome, the milkman, and Joe Crowell, Jr., the paperboy, make their delivery rounds. Dr. Gibbs returns from delivering a set of twins at one of the homes in town. Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb make breakfast, send their children off to school, and meet in their gardens to gossip. The two women also discuss their modest ambitions, and Mrs. Gibbs reveals that she longs to visit Paris.

Throughout the play, the characters pantomime their activities and chores. When Howie makes his milk deliveries, for example, no horse appears onstage despite the fact that he frequently addresses his horse as “Bessie.” Howie does not actually hold anything in his hands, but he pantomimes carrying bottles of milk, and the sound of clinking milk bottles comes from offstage. This deliberate abandonment of props goes hand in hand with the minimal set.

The Stage Manager interrupts the action. He calls Professor Willard and then Mr. Webb out onto the stage to tell the audience some basic facts about Grover’s Corners. Mr. Webb not only reports to the audience, but also takes questions from some “audience members” who are actually characters in the play seated in the audience.

Afternoon arrives, school lets out, and George Gibbs meets his neighbor Emily Webb outside the gate of her house. We see the first inkling of George and Emily’s romantic affection for one another during this scene and during Emily’s subsequent conversation with her mother. The Stage Manager thanks and dismisses Emily and Mrs. Webb, then launches into a discussion of a time capsule that will be placed in the foundation of a new bank building in town. He tells us that he wishes to put a copy of Our Town into this time capsule.

Now evening, a choir in the orchestra pit begins to sing “Blessed Be the Tie That Binds.” The choir, directed by the bitter yet comical choirmaster Simon Stimson, continues to sing as George and Emily talk to each other through their open windows. Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Gibbs, and their gossipy friend Mrs. Soames return home from choir practice and chat about the choirmaster’s alcoholism. The women return to their respective homes. George and his sister Rebecca sit at a window and look outside. Rebecca ponders the position of Grover’s Corners within the vastness of the universe, which she believes is contained within “the Mind of God.” Night has fallen on Grover’s Corners, and the first act comes to an end.

Act Two

known as “Love and Marriage”

Act II takes place three years later, on George and Emily’s wedding day. George tries to visit his fiancée, but he is shooed away by Mr. and Mrs. Webb, who insist that it is bad luck for the groom to see the bride-to-be on the wedding day anytime before the ceremony. Mrs. Webb goes upstairs to make sure Emily does not come downstairs. George is left alone with Mr. Webb. The young man and his future father-in-law awkwardly discuss marriage and how to be a virtuous husband.

The Stage Manager interjects and introduces a flashback to the previous year. George and Emily are on their way home from school. George has just been elected class president and Emily has just been elected secretary and treasurer. George has also become something of a local baseball star. Emily tells George that his popularity has made him “conceited and stuck-up.” George, though hurt, thanks Emily for her honesty, but Emily becomes mortified by her own words and asks George to forget them. The two stop at Mr. Morgan’s drugstore for ice-cream sodas and, over the course of their drink, admit their mutual affection. George decides to scrap his plan of attending agriculture school in favor of staying in Grover’s Corners with Emily.

We return to the day of the wedding in 1904. Both the bride and groom feel jittery, but their parents calm them down and the ceremony goes ahead as planned. The Stage Manager acts as the clergyman. The newlyweds run out through the audience, and the second act ends with the Stage Manager’s announcement that it is time for another intermission.

Act Three

known as “Death” or “Something Eternal”

Act III takes place nine years later, in a cemetery on a hilltop overlooking the town. Emily has died in childbirth and is about to be buried. The funeral party occupies the back of the stage. The most prominent characters in this act, the dead souls who already inhabit the cemetery, sit in chairs at the front of the stage. Among the dead are Mrs. Gibbs, Mrs. Soames, Wally Webb, and Simon Stimson. As the funeral takes place, the dead speak, serving as detached witnesses. Death has rendered them largely indifferent to earthly events. Emily joins the dead, but she misses her previous life and decides to go back and relive part of it. The other souls disapprove and advise Emily to stay in the cemetery.

With the aid of the Stage Manager, Emily steps into the past, revisiting the morning of her twelfth birthday. Howie Newsome and Joe Crowell, Jr. make their deliveries as usual. Mrs. Webb gives her daughter some presents and calls to Mr. Webb. As Emily participates, she also watches the scene as an observer, noting her parents’ youth and beauty. Emily now has a nostalgic appreciation for everyday life that her parents and the other living characters do not share. She becomes agonized by the beauty and transience of everyday life and demands to be taken back to the cemetery. As Emily settles in among the dead souls, George lays prostrate by her tomb. “They don’t understand,” she says of the living. The stars come out over Grover’s Corners, and the play ends.

Themes**

• “The Transience of Human Life”

The play emphasizes that individual lives are transient. It is referenced many times that time seems to pass quickly and even the character of the Stage Manager seemingly the time keeper loses track of the passage of time. It is true that people cannot control the passage of time or the rate at which it does but Wilder begs the question, do they ever stop to appreciate the little things in life and the time they have. The value of routine is expressed. Many simple tasks make up whole scenes in the world of the play, for example eating breakfast, but the characters themselves rush through them and never stop to notice or appreciate the moment of their life that is passing. In the end, the dead express their belief that the living should not grieve for the dead but enjoy the time they have on earth.

• “Importance of Companionship”

The play focuses on the characters interactions with each other, however small. Even small talk serves as the fulfillment of the human desire to connect with another human being. Wilder displays love as the pinnacle of this human interaction and commitment to ones fellow man, though far from the only way the achieve closeness with others. The play often places people in groups where they will belong with others, the wedding, the funeral, even the gathering of the dead; even in death Wilder gives his characters companionship. Wilder even lets his audience be a part of this community by have the Stage Manager address them and include them and walk among them. The title of the play also points to the importance of a group or community, “Our Town”, a very inclusive pronoun for the group of people that live there together.

Sources

Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth-Century American Drama: Volume One 1900-1940 .New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Haberman, Donald. Our Town: An American Play . Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Town

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ourtown/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/ourtown/

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town . New York: Harper and Row, 1957.