Our Town

Woodley Theatre, Woodley

THORNTON Wilder's American classic is set in a small New Hampshire town in the early 1900s where everyone knows everyone else. After an embarrassing teenage relationship, the friendship of neighbours George Gibbs (well characterised by Martin Rock) and Emily Webb (Yvie Magee) finally turns to love and they marry.
  However, their happiness is short-lived when Emily dies in childbirth and is buried in the local cemetery on a dreary, rainy day, where, in spirit, she meets up with friends and neighbours who have gone before her.
  A sad story? Yes- but also an uplifting one. Other talented Rep College members competently portrayed a variety of characters from the local community, breathing warmth and humour into the storyline. They are to be congratulated on an excellent all-round production, which used a bare minimum of scenery and stage props to cleverly present a heartening and passionate glimpse of life at that time.

Barrie Theobald

Rep College / Woodley Theatre / March 3

THE PAINTINGS of Mary Cassatt are brought to life on stage.
  The American Impressionist depicted the pleasures and routine of everyday life, particularly the relationship between people.
  In Wilder's 1938 Pulitzer Prize play, the Gibbs and Webb families of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire are chronicled over a 14-year period.
  The play is an innovative mixture of abstract and micro-realism. The gentle humour and naturalism of the prologue and first two acts layer a detailed picture. This says more than the final sermonising.
  The play is structured as a sequence of tableaux vivant narrated by the Company and Stage Managers.
  Alexandra Tansy Ireland and Ali Mercer, under modern headsets, have a cosiness with the audience to weave the mood and easily transport them through time and place.
  This is a company performance and one that generates great warmth. The collective feel is of Home Town, Americana, where the smallest event has a value placed on it.
  Our Town is richly populated with characters each revealing aspects of human psychology. The acute attention to detail in the acting underpaints the essence of the text.
  This is given scope in the teenage love of Emily Webb and George Gibbs, cutely played with the jerky awkwardness of youth by Yvie Magee and Martin Rock.
  The impression is of the townsfolk portraits lifted from the bare stage and brought into promenade with the audience.

William Campbell