Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The techniques used by Thornton Wilder in presenting the play is very rare in drama presentation. He uses a metatheatrical device; the play is set in the actual theatre where it is being performed.
The stage manager who is also the director acts as the main character. He directly addresses the audience in the theatre, brings in guest lecturers, entertains questions from the audience and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is divided into three acts.
Act I: Daily Life
Act 1 opens in the morning, in the year 1901 with the Stage Manager introducing the audience to the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, and the people living there.
The people perform different roles; Joe Crowell delivers the paper to Doc Gibbs, Howie Newsome delivers the milk, and Webb the people in the household of Doc Gibbs send their children to school. The children are, Emily and Wally Webb, and George and Rebecca Gibbs.
Professor Willard addresses the audience and tells them the history of the town. Editor Webb on his own speaks to the audience about the town’s socio-economic stand, and political and religious status. He also expatiates on the culture of the town; the accessibility, proliferation, or lack of culture and art in Grover’s Corners.
The audience as well as the reader are taken through a series of pivotal moments throughout the afternoon and evening, uncovering the characters’ challenges and relationships. The character of Simon Stimson an organist and choir director at the Congregational Church is introduced here.
It is revealed from Mrs. Louella Soames that Simon Stimson drinks alcohol when she, in the company of Mrs. Gibbs, and Mrs. Webb after choir practice stop on the corner, “gossip like a bunch of old hens,” as they are described by Doc Gibbs while discussing Simon’s alcoholism.
It is a well-known fact to everyone in town that Simon Stimson has a problem with alcoholism. All the characters speak about the issue of alcoholism concerning Simon. The majority of the town folk choose to look the other way including the policeman, Constable Warren. Mrs. Gibbs takes the addiction of Simon Stimson to alcohol seriously and she discusses it with Doc Gibbs her husband.
Act 1 ends on the atmospheric setting of a glowing moon with siblings George, Rebecca, and Emily in their respective bedrooms, looking out of the window and savoring the smell of heliotrope. There is also the self-discovery of George and Emily liking each other.
The first intermission is observed with the dismissal of the audience by the Stage Manager who jests telling the audience that Act 1 has ended and that those who smoke can go and smoke.
Act II: Love and Marriage
Three years after, George and Emily prepare to wed. the day is stressful. Under the pouring rain, Howie Newsome is seen delivering milk, and the younger brother of Joe, Si Crowell decries how George’s baseball talents will be wasted. George also pays a visit to his in-laws-to-be.
Flashbacks is used here when the Stage Manager interrupts and takes the audience back a year; to the end of George and Emily’s junior year.
Emily accuses George of being proud and over an ice cream soda. They also have a discussion about their future and confess their love for each other George changes his earlier plan to go to college, instead plans to work and eventually inherit his uncle’s farm.
Presently, George tells his mother that he and Emily are not ready to marry, while in the presence of Emily’s father, the duo calms down and follows through with the wedding.
Act III: Death and Eternity
Nine years after, the Stage Manager presents a lengthy monologue where he discusses eternity with the attention on the cemetery outside the town. He also focuses on the people who have died since the wedding.
The Stage Manager discusses the death of Mrs. Gibbs who died of pneumonia while traveling, Wally Webb whose appendix burst while camping, and Mrs. Soames and Simpson who committed suicide by hanging.
Joe Stoddard, the town undertaker is brought in here. We also see Sam Craig, a young man, and a cousin Emily. He has just returned to Grover’s Corner for the funeral of Emily who died giving birth to her second child.
After the funeral, Emily joins the dead. Mrs. Gibbs advises her to forget that she is living. That she will be seeing her family but will not be able to interact with them which is painful. Mrs. Soames, Simon, and Mrs. Gibbs warn Emily but ignore the warnings.
She returns to relive one day on her twelfth birthday. She watches her parents and age mates joyfully for the first time in years. Her joy turns to pain when she realizes how little people appreciate the simple joys of life. She that people should treasure every moment of life.
She then asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life while they are alive, he answers, “No. The saints and poets, maybe- they do some.”
Emily returns to her grave beside Mrs. Gibbs and watches George kneeling and weeping over her. The Stage Manager draws the curtain.