Our Town - a play
It is people who make the play, a town.
Very rarely do you see plays that are smeared with simplicity and effectiveness. Our Town is one such play. I always wondered how Americans lead their everyday lives - their kitchens, their dining rooms, the conversations they have. While Our Town takes place in a fictional place during 1910 - 1913 and it is hard to believe that the place does not exist.
The play takes place in three acts. Each act takes you through a period of time of the residents of the town, Grover's Corners.
Act 1 is the introduction of the characters. The milk boy, the neighbours - Webb and Gibbs and the everyday acts like going to school.. etc. Since there are no props, you could see the amount of work the women perform while cooking or while picking the veggies. At one point, the lack of props, make the chores seem like a ballad of routine.
Act 2 is Love and Marriage of Emily and George from the Webb and Gibbs family. They express their love over an ice cream soda. The mothers of the children fondly think of their childhood especially Emily's mother. You are drawn to the memories, bereft of technology and sprinkled with simplicity
Act 3 is Eternity where a few characters from the Town, who have died, speak to the audience. They are seated and they speak of the life in heaven and also to each other. Emily, a new entrant, is greeted. She raises a request to go back in time for a day and she is devastated to see her mother and her predicament on Emily's 13th birthday.
Emily returns to the chair in heaven with a broken heart.
Our Town is definitely a play one must experience. The lack of props and the actors' miming makes it absolutely a delight.
Very rarely do you see plays that are smeared with simplicity and effectiveness. Our Town is one such play. I always wondered how Americans lead their everyday lives - their kitchens, their dining rooms, the conversations they have. While Our Town takes place in a fictional place during 1910 - 1913 and it is hard to believe that the place does not exist.
The play takes place in three acts. Each act takes you through a period of time of the residents of the town, Grover's Corners.
Act 1 is the introduction of the characters. The milk boy, the neighbours - Webb and Gibbs and the everyday acts like going to school.. etc. Since there are no props, you could see the amount of work the women perform while cooking or while picking the veggies. At one point, the lack of props, make the chores seem like a ballad of routine.
Act 2 is Love and Marriage of Emily and George from the Webb and Gibbs family. They express their love over an ice cream soda. The mothers of the children fondly think of their childhood especially Emily's mother. You are drawn to the memories, bereft of technology and sprinkled with simplicity
Act 3 is Eternity where a few characters from the Town, who have died, speak to the audience. They are seated and they speak of the life in heaven and also to each other. Emily, a new entrant, is greeted. She raises a request to go back in time for a day and she is devastated to see her mother and her predicament on Emily's 13th birthday.
Emily returns to the chair in heaven with a broken heart.
Our Town is definitely a play one must experience. The lack of props and the actors' miming makes it absolutely a delight.
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