Our Town
By: Thornton Wilder
Directed by: Kathleen & Kevin Vaught
Produced by: Allen Contemporary Theatre
Audience Rating: G
Running Time: 2 hours with 2 10–15 minute intermissions
Accessible Seating: Available
Hearing Devices: Not Available
Sensory Friendly Showing: Not Available
ASL Showing: Not Available
Sound Level: Comfortable
Audio/Visuals to Prepare For: None
Reviewed by Bradford Reilly
A show that is meant to be produced on a low budget, and integrate a large cast, Our Town is a play often overlooked as your typical community theatre production. However, when done purposefully, correctly, and in service to Thornton Wilder’s exquisite story, the choice to incorporate the show in any season is a treat to behold. Allen Contemporary Theatre succeeds in their exploration - restraining what could be a large cast to a select, and well performing, few… and integrating design choices among the sparseness that only highlights Wilder’s exploration of the value of the microscopic human life that exists among the expanse of time and space.
Set over twelve years, from 1901 to 1913, Our Town chronicles the rhythms of daily life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire: a small town defined by its customs, its routines, and the quiet but profound bonds between its residents. Wilder’s script examines not only how people live, but how they love - how they yearn, preserve, sacrifice, and remember.
At the center of the production is Robert San Juan’s compelling Stage Manager, a figure who exists outside of time - part narrator, part historian, part cosmic observer. The role can feel detached, almost anthropological in its examination of Grover’s Corners. San Juan, however, infuses the character with warmth and unmistakable affection. His portrayal suggests not scientific distance, but familial intimacy; he does not merely guide us through this town, he cherishes it. That sweetness gives greater emotional weight to the play’s central love story and the community surrounding it.
That love story is beautifully anchored by Odette Parker as Emily Webb and Kevin Koickal as George Gibbs. Parker captures Emily’s youthful intelligence and romantic optimism with remarkable sincerity. Her scenes with George brim with innocence and heart, embodying the tentative wonder of first love. Yet it is in the play’s final and inevitable act that Parker delivers an emotional punch, revealing not only how much Emily’s own life mattered, but how deeply she valued the lives around her.
Koickal is equally effective, particularly in quieter moments. One standout scene comes at the end of Act I when George shares a conversation with his younger sister Rebecca, played with radiant enthusiasm by Allison Ayo. Rebecca’s famous pontification on the vastness of existence - tracing their address from “Grover’s Corners, Sutton County, New Hampshire, United States of America…” all the way to “the Mind of God” - is delivered with genuine wonder. Ayo captures the excitement of realizing just how small humanity is within the universe, while George’s attention remains fixed on his immediate, earthly longing for Emily. The juxtaposition is striking: our smallness is not cause for despair, but for awe. Insignificance and infinite value can coexist.
Among the production’s strongest supporting performances are the mothers: Janette Oswald as Mrs. Gibbs and Annie R. Such as Mrs. Webb. Both command their households with authority, but they are shaped by different desires. Oswald’s Mrs. Gibbs carries capable flightiness, dreaming quietly of a life beyond Grover’s Corners and the possibility of travel and expansion. Such’s grounded Mrs. Webb, by contrast, is rooted firmly in the present, concerned less with ambition than with stability and the practical wellbeing of her children. Together, they illuminate two distinct responses to domestic life: longing and acceptance. Oswald deserves additional praise for her understated, even-keeled work in Act III, where her calm presence among the dead lends the final scenes a profound and unsettling serenity.
Visually, the production honors Wilder’s original minimalist vision. The set is sparse: sepia-toned flooring and furniture evoke both memory and faded photographs, while family portraits lining the back wall stretch across generations - from the turn of the twentieth century to what appears to be the present day - subtly reinforcing the play’s timelessness. Costumes by Carly Hinson are suggestive rather than rigidly historical, helping the story transcend period and speak directly to contemporary audiences. Particularly effective is the production’s use of pantomime in place of props, coached skillfully by Candie Blunt.
Under Kathleen Vaught and Kevin Vaught’s direction, this production succeeds most when its characters are defined by longing. Every resident of Grover’s Corners wants something: to travel, to provide, to fulfill hidden potential, to care for family, to preserve tradition, to preserve memory. Their desires may seem ordinary, but Wilder insists - and this production affirms - that ordinary longing is the essence of human life.
In the vastness of the universe, humanity is impossibly small. Yet Our Town reminds us that the value of an individual life is just as infinite - full of meaning, memory, and love. Allen Contemporary Theatre’s production understands this paradox deeply. It asks us to look more closely at our own lives, our own routines, our own fleeting moments, and recognize them for what they are: extraordinary.
To have life, one must love life - and to love life, one must have life. But, we may not see our value while living, that can only be done by looking back. This production of Our Town helps us do exactly that.
Enjoy the show
Bradford Reilly
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