Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Let’s all head up to Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire at the turn of the 20th Century for the fifth show of Burbage Theatre’s eighth season. The show is “Our Town”, Thornton Wilder’s 1938 Pulitzer Prize winning play. The show tells about life in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire from 1901 to 1913. This version is intimate and timely. It features a stage manager who not only explains the action of the characters but also becomes part of the show. Through the use of flashbacks, dialogue, and direct monologues, the other characters reveal themselves to the audience and interact with them. Director Mark Peckham picks the best performers to play these roles and molds them into these town folk splendidly. His cast pantomimes the props and handles the transitions from scene to scene beautifully. Peckham makes the message of live each day to its fullest ring true for contemporary audiences in the 21st Century, too.
Peckham makes the comic moments in the first two acts very focused and apparent to the audience which makes the dramatic third act stand out. He has his cast enter from the audience to the playing area. Vince Petronio is brilliant as the stage manager and displays great energy and conviction while doing so. He is very comfortable speaking directly to the audience and he sets up the scenes of this show, telling the other characters what to do. The main characters of “Our Town” are George Gibbs, a doctor’s son and Emily Webb, a daughter of a newspaper editor. The play covers their life together from childhood to courtship and marriage to death with the funeral at show’s end. They are next door neighbors who look at the moon and stars together from their respective homes.
Andrew Iacovelli as George, does a marvelous job as he transforms himself from the young boy, to teen and finally adulthood. He handles the comic and dramatic moments splendidly especially the funny ones at the wedding with his in-laws and the poignant one in the final scene at the grave with tears flowing from his eyes. Valerie Westgate plays Emily and shines in this role. She displays her young girl antics in Act 1 and later on with Emily’s more mature relationship with George comes through, especially in the argument, soda shop and wedding scene in Act 2. Valerie rips your heart out in the final scene when she returns for her 12th birthday party by realizing we don’t enjoy life enough and just let it pass on by.
Both Melissa Penick as Mrs. Webb and Emily Lewis as Mrs. Gibbs do a terrific job with their miming, cooking the breakfast scenes. They look like they are using real food in them and also display the warmth between mother and child as well as husband and wife throughout the show. Peckham gives each of his performers their moments to shine with Melissa in her speech in Act 2 during the wedding and Emily at the wedding and especially in the heart rending final graveyard scene. David Tessier as Dr. Gibbs and Dave Rabinow as Mr. Webb play their roles well, too. David’s reprimanding George for not chopping the wood for his mother and Dave’s speech on how to have a successful marriage are standout moments for them.
The younger siblings are well played by Simone Pellegrino as the pesky, Rebecca Gibbs who bothers her brother when he flirts with Emily at his bedroom window and Nick Griffin as Wally Webb. Three scene stealers are Paula Faber as Mrs. Soames, the town gossip who chats with the ladies after rehearsal and then tells the audience what a lovely wedding it is during the sacred vows, Andy Stigler as Simon Stimson, the drunken choir director who leads them comically in “Blessed Be the Ties that Bind” during rehearsal which is also sung at a funeral at the end of the show with more poignant results and Liz Hallenbeck as Professor Willard when she describes Grover’s Landing to the audience. So for a trip back to the past which still resonates with contemporary audiences, be sure to catch “Our Town” at Burbage Theatre and witness a well written Pulitzer Prize winning play performed marvelously by this talented cast.
OUR TOWN (15 March to 7 April)
Burbage Theatre, 249 Roosevelt Avenue, Pawtucket, RI
1(401)484-0355 or www.burbagetheatre.org
