by Geoff Hoff

Last night I saw a production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder, that wonderful celebration of the mundane that, done well, can elevate the everyday to glorious heights.  The play was presented by The Actors’ Gang at the Ivy Substation in Culver City.  The marriage of this play with the Gang’s toned-down Commedia Dell’Arte “style” missed the point in a lot of ways, but also brought out some ideas nicely.

The themes of the play involve community, family, love, marriage and death, pretty much the gamut of human experience.  These ideas are most vividly presented through the characters of George Gibbs and Emily Webb, who start in act one as high school students.  Therein lies the problem with the Gangs’ “style”, which can be presentational and reduce complex characters to stock personality types like the stock players in true Commedia (the Harlequin, the Shopkeeper, the cowardly Captain, the Miser, etc.)

Chris Schultz and Venessa Mizzone have either been directed to, or have chosen to play their parts as stock children; wide-eyed, gawky, clueless and innocent and almost completely lacking in any real human connection or drive.  It could be argued that, because Wilder used archetypes as his characters, it is a reasonable leap to make them also “stock”.  However, Wilder imbued his archetypes with real humanity.  They are not cliche.  He makes a point of filling them with passion, life and pain.  In fact, living (as in alive) archetypes seems part of the point of the piece.

Because of this, a lot of the emotional core of the play is robbed.

It is entirely possible to play a “stock” character with real humanity, as a lot of the other cast members do, noticeably the parents, Lindsley Allen and Andrew E. Wheeler as Mrs. and Mr. Webb and Annemette Andersen and Nathan Kornelis as Mrs. and Dr. Gibbs who all do “present” their characters, but also live them in a way that they affect the audience on a deep level.

Act one, the setting of the town and the spark of the young romance, the daily life, is delightful and charming and a lot of fun.  There is one bit of staging here, however that brings up another problem of the Gangs’ style.  When George’s younger sister Rebecca (Katie Malia) squeezes into his bedroom window to look at the moon it is usually played at the top of a step ladder.  In deference to the circus aspects of Commedia Dell’Arte, however, she instead climbs up two drapes in a delightful acrobatic display that has, unfortunately, nothing to do with the scene or play.

Act two, the wedding, is where the style starts to pull at the fabric of the story.  Because we have not been allowed to really know George and Emily as anything besides “the children” in act one, the moments of real fear and confusion, such as George’s visit to the Webbs’ kitchen on the wedding morning, lack something.  That is a very funny scene, but a bit empty.  And both his and Emily’s cold feet right before going down the aisle felt simply melodramatic rather than wrenching, which is what seems possible.  The hardest scene, however, is the soda fountain flashback where the two young people first realize and confess to each other their feelings.  Again, the humor is there but the real transformations they go through are presented (that word again) as long pauses where they “figure things out”.

The style really works in act three with some very, very innovative staging.  Without giving too much away, the unusual staging brings you immediately to where you are and who you’re visiting with.  Because, however, we are not very invested in George and Emily, the emotional reaction to this scene is again less than it could be.

As I said at the beginning, the “style” can be married with real depth and organic presence.  The shining example of that is Steven M. Porter as the Stage Manager.  He enters and instantly pulls us into the life of this fictional small town.  He is fully engaged with both the inhabitants individually and collectively and with their historical context, which, to Wilder, was paramount.  The play was originally presented in the 30s as a look back at the turn of the century and the Stage Manager is written as fully aware of that.  He is also engaged with us, the audience.  When Mr. Porter must play one of the townspeople, which he does in acts one and two, he presents them as the cliche bits they are and yet manages to fully inhabit them, the crowning glory being the proprietor of the soda fountain who watches with utter child-like delight as George and Emily discover what they mean to each other.  He is a joy to watch.

The other cast members include Pierre Adeli, Seth Compton, April Fitzsimmons, Scott Harris, Brian Kimmet, Katie Malia and Barry O’Neil.  Set design was by Will Pellegrini, lighting by Jacqueline Reid.  Costumes were by Suzanne Scott.  It was directed by Justin Zsebe and the dramaturg was Dr. Yeal Prizant.

The play is performed Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through May 30th, 2009.

The Ivy Substation is located at 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 on the corner of Culver and Venice Blvds.

Seating is reserved and tickets are $25.00.  Pay-What-You-Can tickets (general admission) are available at all Thursday evening performances when purchased at the door.

Reservations online at www.theactorsgang.com or by phone at (310) 838-GANG (310 838-4264).