Reconsidering simplicity in Our Town

If college students want to watch a stress-free, relaxing, yet intellectually stimulating piece of theater, Our Town by Thornton Wilder fits the bill.

Columbia’s theater scene would benefit from a production of Our Town. As Columbia students, we need a little simplicity. The rumbling of the cars on the street and the bustle of the people on the sidewalks call for a little small-town, down-to-earth, Mama’s-home-cooking type of play.

With the theatre district just a subway ride away, Columbia promotes a prestigious standard of theater. A play that is malleable—a play that can be tweaked—lends itself to the ambitious minds of Columbia theater. Our Town’s simple plotline and minimalist nature allow for strong creative leeway.

Set in the early 20th century, Our Town is, at its heart, a portrait of a small town. Like Seinfeld, it is merely about daily life, yet also entertaining.

Our Town takes its audience inside the lives of two families in Grover’s Corners. Although the story line is quite predictable, the play takes viewers on an emotional journey. Each act presents the viewer with a different milestone in the protagonists’ lives: adolescence, falling in love, marriage, and death.

Wilder skillfully constructs accessible characters. These characters breathe through the depth the actors bestow upon them, posing an interesting challenge for Columbia actors. Externally simplistic, each character possesses a unique and complex potential, and Wilder’s dialogue is saturated with subtext.

Full of minor roles like the Crowells (the paper boy generation) and Mrs. Soames (the town gossip), Our Town creates the small-town feeling of Grover’s Corners while allowing for a larger cast.
The stage manager—the main character—narrates the show, and acts as the glue that holds the play together. This meta-theatrical element intensifies the honesty of the play. Wilder employs the character to show that perhaps each of our lives has a stage manager—fate is more influential than it outwardly appears.

Though fateful, the play leaves room for creative license. Props and a set may or may not be necessary. Columbia students would have the opportunity to mold the play to their liking, making it more explicitly applicable to their own lives. They could modernize the play and set it in the 21st century, giving it a technological touch and contemporary feel.
Because of the play’s outward straightforwardness, there is much room for interpretation on both the parts of the performers and creative team. The uncomplicated nature and truthfulness of the play is truly what makes it beautiful.