Reviewer: Kristine Gotham
Venue: Historic Masonic Temple of Bay City
With just 2 tables with chairs for a set, minimal costuming, 14 actors and 1 Stage Manager/Narrator, Vanishing Elephant players brought the story of Our Town to life at The Historic Masonic Temple. Our Town, written by Thornton Wilder, offers a snapshot of life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire between 1901 and 1913. The story focuses mainly on two families, the Gibbs family and the Webb family. It tells of the daily life and activities of the people in Grover’s Corners, work and home, family and friends. Our Town focuses on the details of life, being a family, having friends, finding your marriage partner, and living after a loved one has died. The story encourages the audience to remember that life is only temporary, that “way down deep in our bones we know there is something eternal”, and that life needs to be lived fully in the moment, because after we die we cannot come back.
Erica Tatum, portrays the Stage Manager. In her role, she keeps the play moving. She helps the audience to visualize the town and its surroundings, learn about the people, and look into themselves to think about their own lives and how they might want to live more fully. Erica is completely engaging in her role. She moves about the set, using small props to create specific moments, and engaging with the audience with both her voice and her actions.
Kriselda Longoria and Johnn Zdrojewski play Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs. The actors beautifully represent a married couple with children. Longoria moves around the set, using her actions, to convincingly depict her daily activities, making breakfast, preparing vegetables from the garden and engaging with her children. She is quiet and reserved in her voice, but you can feel her strength, her love for her family, and her deep understanding of a person’s need for love and companionship, as she states “’tain’t natural to be lonesome. People are meant to go through life two by two”. Zdrojewski’s portrayal of Dr. Gibbs is less physical than Longoria. He uses his voice to show his character’s emotions and physical condition, from the weariness of being up all night at a delivery to his guiding hand of his son’s behavior.
The other family, the Webbs, are played by Chey Maloczewski as Mrs. Webb and Chris Csont as Mr. Webb. Both actors fully embrace their characters, married, raising two children and following what happens in the town to accurately relay the information in the local paper that Mr. Webb edits.
The two young people in the play, the ones who the story revolves around are played by Julian Rivers as George Gibbs and Avery Weller as Emily Webb. Rivers is excellent as George. He uses his voice to convey his excitement at playing with his friends, his uncertainty at asking Emily out for sodas, and his love for his mother as he assures her that she isn’t losing a son but gaining another daughter to love. Physically, Rivers moves around the set like a gangly teenager to a man who is heartbroken at the loss of his wife.
Weller’s depiction of Emily is spot on. She shows a young girl, curious and distracted, falling in love, to a young woman, who dies too soon. Emily is the main focus of the final act of the play. Weller draws all of her emotion to depict all of the character’s emotion, her questions about being dead, her desire to go back and relive a day in her life, her despair at realizing that the living don’t fully understand what a gift they have in life.
The other actors in the play help to round out the town, to provide a community for each of the players to grow. While not named specifically, the play would not be complete without them.
Our Town is a play that is designed for a minimal set. The Historic Masonic Temple is a perfect backdrop with its history and minimal design. The Vanishing Elephant Players created a wonderful experience that you do not want to miss. Performances are this weekend only, Saturday, September 14 at 7pm, and Sunday, September 15 at 3 pm.