“OUR TOWN”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27255, 5 December 1949, Page 7

“OUR TOWN”

Drama Club Production

“ Our Town,” a three-act play by Thornton Wilder, presented by the Oamaru Drama Club to appreciative audiences for a two-night season at the Opera House, was the most ambitious effort in the 11 plays produced by the club to date. The play takes place in the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, USA. and cover the period 1901 to 1913. There is no scenery, and the audience has to imagine the town to be laid out on the stage in panorama according to the directions of the stage manager. He is one of the cast, and it is can look into the homes and learn about through his ingenuity that the audience the lives of some of the leading inhabitants of Grover’s Corners. It is on the atmosphere created by this means and on the descriptive actions of the players themselves that the success of the play depends.

The producer was Mr Rodney Kennedy, drama tutor, Adult Education Department, University of Otago. Though a. ipost unusual type of stage production, and one which demanded the audience's full attention, the smoothness with which the action took place, and the excellent delivery of their lines by the players must have been very gratifying to Mr Kennedy. The presentation was an undoubted success, the dramatic art of the principals and many of the supporting players creating - a warm response from the onlookers. It was on Mr Ron Sowden, as stage manager, that the exacting task fell of directing the play, step by step through the lives of Dr Gibbs (Gordon Robertson) and Mr Webb (Rex Allen) and their families. Three years later in act 2, the audience again goes into the homes of these families for the wedding of Emily Webb (Irene Brown) and George Gibbs (Bertram Williams). But the stage manager further enlightens the audience by recalling the past and showing the incidents that led up to the bethrothal—the boy and girl romance typical of thousands. He made vocal the thoughts of these people, striking a familiar chord in the minds of many of the audience. Nine years later, in the last act, the scene changes to the day of Emily's funeral. The stage manager once again enlightens the audience and in a moving climax drives home the thought-provoking message of the play—that truth and understanding are to be found only in the future. In all there are 35 players in the cast, with 25 speaking parts. They gave a fine performance which set, the seal of merit once again on the activities of the Drama Club.