Our Town. An apparently sweet snapshot of small town Americana — labeled as possibly *the* American play. My experience with this play is that I don't remember ever not knowing about it, peppered as it was throughout my childhood in various sitcoms. Featuring heavily in the plots of Growing Pains (S3 E11 ∙ "Broadway Bound"), The Wonder Years (S3 E5 ∙ "On the Spot"), My So-Called Life (S1 E17 ∙ "Betrayal"), and even Cheers (S8 E9 ∙ "Two Girls for Every Boyd"), I was exposed to this one so much that I knew the whole of it, even if I didn't know the details. With that, I never really felt compelled to read it. Then Ann Patchett's Tom Lake centered around this evergreen play, and I thought, despite DNFing the book, I'd give the play a try.

But Our Town missed the mark for me. In its simplicity, particularly in the stage settings — the minimalist props/set, the pantomime acting from the cast, and the well-known Stage Manager role, who dominates the stage — I could see the draw. The pull of stripping away the fluff and filler to see the stark, gentle reality of this time period and these ordinary people was certainly compelling to me... before I read it. However, Wilder’s desire to turn utterly and completely away from nuance or complexity never allowed me to connect emotionally with anyone. Don’t get me started on the dialogue — too much small-town affectation and far too stilted. The constant strain of the running epilogue (“What happens to so-and-so?”) threaded throughout the play and delivered by the Stage Manager created a distance and overpowered what little hold the actual play action could manage.