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Our Town is one of the twentieth century's greatest dramas and one of the most influential of all-time - one of very few plays that truly changed how people think about theater. Thornton Wilder was tired of conventions and boldly tried to write a play that could really stand on its own without a set and with minimal scenery and props. This required miming - a huge gamble that could have come off as disastrously implausible and corny. However, the play became a sensation, won the Pulitzer Prize, and has had a profound influence. As all this suggests, it truly must be seen to be fully experienced and appreciated - not because of theatrical touches, as nearly always in such cases, but because it relies more than nearly any other play on acting power. Indeed, its full strength does not come across even in performance unless the acting is superb. Its many revivals and adaptations have thankfully attracted some of the most talented actors for over seventy years, but this is little help to those merely reading the play. It is all too easy for the play to come off as flat on paper, and the miming instructions can be particularly off-putting. However, though reading can never convey the full gamut, the greatness is such that much of it comes across even here, making the play well worth reading for those unable to attend a performance or who want to read it after seeing one.
The plot is almost as simple as the presentation; it begins by depicting everyday life in a small New England town and proceeds to show representative life events there, namely love, marriage, and death. Characters are archetypes, almost stereotypes, representing time-honored small town American ideals. Much of the play is not dramatic at all in the usual sense, simply showing mundane interactions. Even the ostensibly most dramatic scenes are meant to be very familiar; there is nothing even resembling a twist, and it is safe to say that the whole plot is easily recognizable to nearly all Americans, whether personally or from idealized depictions. All this sounds very boring and almost certainly would be in lesser hands, but Wilder's handling is masterful. The play celebrates the banal - everyday events that few think anything of but that after all make up most of our lives. The message is also equally obvious - we should embrace rather than ignore such moments because life can end at any time; we must make the most of what we have before it is too late, especially as many lives are made of little or nothing more than such moments. This again sounds almost unbearably clichéd, the dramatic equivalent of a Hallmark card, but Wilder's artistry again saves the day. The play is suffused with great emotional intensity that at times becomes near-unbearable; it is one of the most affecting dramas ever despite the lack of highly wrought pathos. It moves us precisely because it is so familiar - or did; many initial viewers were moved precisely because they saw so much of their own lives, reacting - and perhaps afterward adjusting - accordingly. However, the realism is now almost entirely of historical interest, and the play is indeed valuable as a snapshot of rural New England life in the early twentieth century, not least in showing how centuries-old traditions were rapidly changing as well as consequent effects. Urbanization, immigration, commercialization, mass media, technology, and numerous other factors have made Our Town's world all but unrecognizable. It now comes off as almost quaint, which in a way adds a further emotional layer if we see it as an unintentional lament for a dying life. Yet none of this really matters, because such elements are really just vehicles for the profound depiction of elemental human emotions at the play's core. The final scene is one of the most sublimely poignant anyone is ever likely to see, throwing life's ups and downs into stark relief against death's undeniable ubiquity. Different as the characters may seem from us, they have the same basic thoughts and feelings - nay the same that human beings have always had and will continue to have as long as they are human. The play will surely remain relevant and affecting for this long also, regardless of superficial changes.
Yet, for all this, it is easy to exaggerate the simplicity. Wilder has been called an unfashionable optimist, and his work is certainly at least relatively optimistic beside most twentieth century drama and other art. However, he was not blind to life's dark side, as shown here by the drunkard serving as the mouthpiece for views that even the staunchest idealist should not ignore. Also, despite the general primitivism, Our Town is a very modern play in some ways. This is clearest in the important part of the narrator, a character fully aware of his fictional status who interacts with the audience and otherwise behaves in ways distinctly opposed to traditional drama. The last act is also notable for what might be called supernatural elements, dropping realism for a sort of poetic fantasy that, while very different from the first two acts in style, is much the same in spirit. Such things are an interesting contrast to the otherwise mundane realism, making the play significantly more complex than is usually noted.
In the end, though, the intense emotion at the play's heart carries it, making or breaking it onstage depending on acting and working to varying degrees on paper depending on readers' sensibilities. It seems safe to say that the play will touch everyone in some way, but some may not think it lives up to its reputation in purely literary terms. However, everyone interested in drama must experience this supremely influential classic in some form. As in life generally, we must not let the opportunity slip away...
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