Is "Our Town" the most boring play? - Page 3

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 10:36am

I read Our Town when I was a kid, and didn't quite get it. But, when I saw the '89 taping of the LCT production and the aboslute perfection achieved by Penelope Ann Miller, particularly in that final monologue, I realized just how special and wonderful a play it is.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 11:20am

OUR TOWN is, for me, the Great American Play. Period. Very little even comes close. Cromer's brilliant production a couple years back should have been essential viewing for the entire human race.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 12:08pm

I directed several productions of OUR TOWN and played George Gibbs 'way back when I was young enough to look convincing in knickers.

It's a lovely play and when I saw the Paul Newman version I found myself wiping tears from my eyes in the soda fountain scene, as well as during Emily's "farewell to Grover's Corners". The sheer beauty of Wilder's language and his ability to capture the essence of human existence is extremely touching.

OUR TOWN is a major work that may be destroyed by well-intended English teachers and inept directors.

[cordialcherry]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 3:33pm

My freshman year of high school, we watched the Romeo and Juliet with Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting. It really made me love the story. The lower phases of the grade were apparently showed the version with Leo DiCaprio, which I found interesting.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 3:49pm

OUR TOWN is a beautiful play and when I read the OP's comment: find it quite a snore-fest,my first thought was you must have seen a bad production, but even bad productions cannot completely dim the glow of Wilder's poetic writing. You have to pay attention and think about what is being presented on stage. There is a good reason why the play is done without props or set pieces...the author wants to make you use your imagination. Maybe you don't have any.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 4:07pm

At different times, both Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams referred to Thorton Wilder as the "master" who inspired them to become playwrights.

I taught OUR TOWN to college freshmen and women for 12 years and never received a complaint. I usually introduced the play by pointing that Wilder wasn't writing for high schools and community theaters in New England, he was writing for the Broadway stage. And what does the title mean in that context? And then I challenged them to identify the homosexual character. That was about all it took to make the play fascinating.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 4:09pm

Well Mother Gibbs was obviously a big ol' lesbian.

Updated On: 6/15/12 at 04:09 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 4:22pm

It wasn't a trick question, Jordan, if you think about the signifiers of a small town homosexual in 1930s America.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 8:28pm

I believe the video version of the play that Jordan treasures--the one with Hal Holbrook as the Stage Manager--clears up the matter of the character some people think is homosexual. Simon Stimson was a married man who drank because his wife ran off with a politician (or was it a salesman???). That scene had been in the original text but had been cut from the original production due to playing time.

Of course, we could argue about WHY Mrs. Stimson lost left her husband....

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 8:33pm

No. A masterpiece.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 11:04pm

It's a play that can pass by un-noticed unless your perceptive to it, just like the lesson in life Emily learns all too late.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 11:08pm

That she should have been buried with some padded underwear on since sitting on a folding chair for the rest of eternity HURTS?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/15/12 at 11:18pm

I think if you find this play boring, you've never seen a production or performances that do it justice. Simple as that.

[sparrman]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 12:33am

FWIW, in the script, Constable Warren says to Mr. Webb:

"Simon Stimson is rollin' around a little. Just saw his wife movin' out to hunt for him so I looked the other way — there he is now."

Not, obviously, that this is proof of any sort that he wasn't gay; I always suspected he was too. But his wife is there, and mentioned in the script.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/16/12 at 1:23am

To me, Simon is symbolic of anyone who doesn't fit into small town life, but is stuck there for whatever reason.

You can draw your own conclusion why he drinks and is suicidally depressed and doesn't fit in, and no answer is definitively right or wrong. He could be gay, absolutely. He could also be a frustrated artist or musician that, for lack of drive or talent or circumstances, will never realize the goals he dreamed of in his youth. He could have lost the love of his live and never recovered. He could be clinically manic-depressive/bipolar with no understanding of the illness and how to treat it.

I like that it's left open for the audience to draw its own conclusion.

As it says so simply and honestly in the script, "Some people just aren't meant for small town life."

Updated On: 6/16/12 at 01:23 AM