Until I saw this version of Our Town I did not really understand the power of Thorton Wilder's play. This version contains real people and not characters lifted from cloying greeting cards. The cast is excellent. When Dr. Gibbs dresses down his son for ignoring the chores, we understand why George cries. We see unstated confusion and conflict between the doctor and his son regarding his mother and then marital tension, loving tension, between the Gibbs when the mother comes home. Penelope Ann Miller elicits the pathos of seeing the ones she loves who do not understand what she now understands about life. Spaulding Gray is quirky and purposefully detached from the characters of the play he is supervising. He is at his best when he lays out the town in the first act description. His use of his hands is excellent.
Review of Our Town
