OUR TOWN

 

Written by Thornton Wilder
Directed by David Cromer

Synopsis: This staging of Wilder's timeless play in which the action takes place in, among and around the audience, creating an intimacy between actors and audience and a powerful encounter with the play's searching questions about family, community and mortality.

 

NEW YORK TIMES:
"That is the sole extraordinary touch in a production that is in most ways ordinary, and I think purposely and profitably so. Wilder sought to make sacraments of simple things. In “Our Town” he cautioned us to recognize that life is both precious and ordinary, and that these two fundamental truths are intimately connected. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

NEW YORK POST:
"Thornton Wilder's play was actually avant-garde for its time, and its view of life and death is tinged with as much bitter reality as sweetness. Cromer's revelatory staging restores these qualities, and its physical and emotional intimacy allows the audience to share the experiences of the characters with an almost uncomfortable closeness. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS:
"But the riveting new production at the Barrow Street Theatre trades nostalgia and Whitman Sampler sweetness for an unsentimental reading. Without overhauling the text, it effectively wipes dainty images from your mind. It's a tougher "Town," and more relevant and urgent for it."
Read the whole review HERE.

 

THEATERMANIA:
"But, these issues aside, Cromer still makes the case for Our Town as one of the three or four most important experimental advances in American theater-writing. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

VARIETY:
"So, in a sense, rising-star Chicago helmer Cromer (who made impressive work of reimagining "The Adding Machine" as a surrealistic musical last year and makes his Broadway debut next season with a Neil Simon double) is beating a dead horse. The play doesn't need a corrective, just a fair reading. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

NYTHEATRE.COM:
"This Our Town issues jolt after jolt of human recognition, and has a cumulative power that, to my mind, is unmatched by anything currently on stage in NYC. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

BACKSTAGE:
" It's a delicious piece of stage work -- but a tragic example of too little, too late. By the time this ballyhooed sequence arrived, I'd already given up on Grover's Corners. In Cromer's hands, the cozy hamlet has become a frosty little town. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

amNY:
"Most choose to perform the play because of its low-cost style, but without understanding why Wilder demanded no frills. As a result, audiences tend to think that “Our Town” is dated and boring. Luckily, a damn good production in town has arrived to remind us of the play’s original brilliance. "
Read the whole review HERE.

 

TIME OUT NY:
"Forget that high-school production you may have snoozed through: This is one of the great American plays of all time. "
Read the whole review HERE.