It's a cool-glass-of-lemonade-on-the-porch, stick-your-arm-into-the-barrel-and-grab-a-pickle kind of trip. You'll need to pack your imagination. As Thornton Wilder determined, the set of Geva's production of Our Town is minimal, keeping the audience focused on the timeless tale.
Looming gray brick walls with gaping black doors create the blank screen against which Grovers Corners will be created. G.W. Mercier's scenic design immediately sets an unexpected, dark tone. A bare bulb stands at center stage, casting --- instead of hiding --- ominous shadows of the theater's hanging stage lights. This is a play within a play, and our guide on this journey is the Stage Manager, played by Skip Greer.
This journey can be confusing. If this is truly a fiction, and the characters on stage merely poor players who strut and fret, then the decisions the characters make are inconsequential. Or, is this the story of the characters' true lives, playing out in front of us for our entertainment and education? The answers to these questions are left purposely unanswered, allowing the audience to decide for themselves.
It's the omniscient Stage Manager who sets the scene, using sensorial imagery to create shops and gardens, streets and homes that don't physically exist. Greer sees the places he describes, and, because he sees the colors, so can the audience. Scotty Iseri's sound design is essential in setting the scenes and lending credibility to the actors' pantomime. Mercier's costume design certainly doesn't lend vibrancy. Every townsperson is swathed in earth tones. These are a down-to-earth people who appreciate the beauty and power of nature, and this appreciation is reflected in their clothes. It's curious that Mercier chooses not to have even a single character stand out from the rest, not even the clever ingénue Emily Webb.
Wide-eyed and adorned with chestnut tendrils, Emily, as played by Virginia Kull, is precocious. "Mama, am I good looking?" Emily asks. Just beginning to pull her nose from the books to notice the boy next door, Emily is intensely curious. Kull plays each little moment to its full potential. In delivering the classic, "The moonlight's so terrible" line, Kull fulfills all of the dreamy pubescent romance that a moony teenager could desire. George Gibbs, Emily's one-and-only, as played by Jake Mosser, makes a subtle transformation from immature, sports-obsessed boy to family man.
Director Mark Cuddy creates beautiful stage pictures that tell the handsome couple's love story. Encouraged by the soft warbling of the church choir, teenage flirtation flourishes as Kull and Mosser stand atop ladders in the soft glow of that terrible moon.
As the title suggests, Our Town deals with universal themes. Wilder, in this three-act play, deals with "Daily Life," "Marriage and Love," and "Death." Exploring the relationships between parent and child, husband and wife, and life and death, Wilder wants the audience to connect with the play. However, happy two-parent families in which mom cooks three meals a day and dad brings home the bacon may not ring true for today's audience. Especially with the Stage Manager spouting supposed truisms like, "Almost everybody in the world gets married."
Although the aspects of daily life and marriage that Wilder confronts may be outdated, it is certainly true, and always will be, that all humans confront death. While the first two acts are a pleasant trip into the mind of Norman Rockwell, it is the final act that touches close to home. It is in a particularly disturbing scene change that Cuddy makes the transition from innocence to death. As Emily and George exit the chapel, Mendelssohn's wedding march fades into the eerie tolling of church bells and howling of the wind. Adoring wedding guests drop their smiles and turn their backs on the couple, walking into the darkness.
"We all know how it is..." the Stage Manager posits. And, unfortunately, we do. In witnessing the loss of a loved one, we are all connected in a universal human experience. Here, in "Death," is Wilder's accomplishment, his message to, his connection to future generations.
Our Town | through March 25 | Geva Theatre Center, 75 Woodbury Boulevard | $14.50-$53.50 | 232-GEVA, www.gevatheatre.org