Our Town review, Almeida

In the radio series The Archers - 'an every day story of country folk', there is a character called Linda Snell, a cultured and well-meaning chattering-class-type struggling to bring great art to the worlds of pig men and ditch diggers. Each Christmas, Linda puts on a pantomime. We have weeks of merriment as old warmints audition to be town criers and young farmers are bullied away from their organic herds to play Prince Charming. This year, after a low turn out for Rumpelstiltskin, Linda has cancelled the auditions and marched out. More than once during Our Town, I wondered if she'd secretly sneaked her crew of yokel thespians to Islington for a production that appears to be taking place in a church hall bustling with country folk.

First, a confession. I read very little about Thornton Wilder's play beforehand. I knew the narrator in Our Town directly addresses the audience, that there are few props or costumes, and that all the action is mimed. I read this as meaning the production was effectively an interaction of the imagination between cast and audience - we help make it real.  That's how I understood it; and having swooned over a Julius Caesar earlier this week where there were no props at all, and everything was imagined from home to Rome, I saw this as a plus. I should have found a different source to Wikipedia.

What the information didn't say was that the actors speak in their own dialects. So a US play set in New Hampshire - which has been minutely described from the foliage to the topology by the narrator - is acted in every UK accent except Belfast and Tiger Bay. Only the narrator, David Cromer, is American.  He's also directs, and is excellent on both counts. The church hall look is odd but interesting, and the theatre is configured to include everyone. Across Our Town's three acts we experience the life cycle in the town of Grover's Corner. The final act reflects on death. There is a meaningful message about human beings failing to realise life, because we're too busy living. At least I think that's what it said. A birthday breakfast represented the realisation of a moment missed; but even as the smell of bacon wafted to the balcony, we were checking our watches.

In conclusion: This is probably a very good production of Our Town.  It's clearly a must for students of theatre: it breaks boundaries and challenges expectations. For the average punter, however, while watching paint dry isn't preferable, it's probably a better way of realising a moment in your own life than spending it pondering those of Wilder's fictional characters.

References
Our Town, Almeida, Tickets

Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London N1.       Run ends 29 November