Our Town in our town

Members of The Community Players of New Hamburg perform in Our Town, running now until Nov. 16. Photo courtesy of The Community Players.

By Mercedes Kay Gold

The 2024 season of local theatre has almost come to a close. The Community Players of New Hamburg (TCP) took centre stage with Our Town, spectacularly opening Nov. 7.

Our Town, a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder, was carefully chosen to close out the season, running until Nov. 16. As the TCP looks back on 40 years in the community, artistic director Brooke Gamble is reminded “that our TCP family has thrived because of our relationships we’ve formed, the memories we’ve shared and the love we have for the art of storytelling.”   

Our Town was produced and published in 1938, and the three-acts span 1901-1913, sharing and exploring the daily lives of the people in the tiny tightknit town of Grover’s Corners, N.H. The timeless masterpiece has been described as “the greatest American play ever written” by Edward Albee.

Our Town can best be summed up in one word. Simplicity. The set is sparce and sequence is skipped, and if you haven’t experienced a play using metatheatrical devices, it’s exceptionally engaging and one of a kind. I had the honour of watching Anne Maste play the stage manager, the main character who directly addresses us during the Nov. 9 evening performance. Her radio-worthy voice quickly captures our attention, enrolling the audience in a more intimate theatre experience. The cast of 19 brought life, love and pain to their roles and they flowed seamlessly on stage.

Act one or Daily Life opens with all that 1901 entailed from the small-town, sleep-deprived physician, Dr. Gibbs (played by Ian Hopkins), to the arrival of Bessie pulling the milk cart door-to-door. Joe Crowell or the weather-savvy milkman (played by Jack Griffioen) was a welcome morning arrival in Grover’s Corners, and his calm-acting demeanor made me envious of the times.

The first act is all about introductions. The narrator gives us the facts with a side of gossip about everyone form Dr. Gibbs, his wife and their two children to their neighbours, the Webb family to Simon, the town drunk, constable and the positivity of the church lady. By day’s end underneath a glowing moon, siblings George and Rebcca Gibbs (played by Ryan Dunham and Ilsa Hagerman) as well as Emily Webb (played by Jill Prince) gaze out their bedroom windows. Maybe it’s the intoxicating heliotrope or the mesmerizing moonlight, but we learn Emily and George like each other.

Act two begins in 1904, three years later, and George and Emily prepare to wed. This was a glimpse into real life and so well-acted by Dunham and Prince. We could see and feel George’s awkwardness as he made an early morning visit to his soon-to-be in-laws. The interruption by the stage manager and the scene in the soda shop was an amazing way to shed light on the couple’s backstory for the audience before we return to pre-wedding jitters in the church scene.

Act three begins nine years later, and a lengthy monologue sets the tone for the scene. Life has run its course and we are taken down the path, learning who has died. Without spoiling the ending, one-character returns to Earth, choosing to relieve one day, and happiness turns to pain, realizing how people fail to appreciate the small moments in life, before they quickly depart earth.

Our Town is truly timeless, reflecting on the life and times of community, and how life is just a collection of moments, and making the moments count is more than a meme for modern-day social media posts.

After seeing the play, it’s easy to see how this play received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and became a popular revival for over a century, opening again on Braoadway Oct. 10, 2024 with stars Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes in the cast.

Our Town is running in our tiny town, New Hamburg, until Nov. 16 and this writer urges you to take a friend or go solo – but do go! Follow on social @TCPPNH.