It’s an interesting feeling to be humbled by a play. It’s even more interesting considering that the play doing the humbling was written almost nine decades ago.
And yet, that is exactly what Cleveland Play House manages to accomplish with the first show of their 2025-26 season. CPH’s “Our Town” uses a precise, firm hand to deliver the life lessons of Thornton Wilder’s great American play in a rendition that demands audiences confront the preciousness of life.
In this show-within-a-show, the Stage Manager character sets the stage (quite literally, as he begins the show by pulling chairs and tables into an empty playing space) and serves as our guide to the small town of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire. The three-Act play spans across 12 years, following the townspeople, specifically the Webb and Gibbs families, through the turn of the 20th century, where they grow, fall in love and penultimately die.
Written in 1938, Wilder’s “Our Town” is famous for redefining American theater by trading realism for meta-theatricism. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and remains a popular piece today.
The show casts aside typical theatrical trappings of scenery and props, instead asking that we use our imagination and the guidance of the Stage Manager to picture the houses, gardens, flooded streets and many churches of Grover’s Corners. Set designer Daniel Ostling lays the Allen Theatre scandalously bare, revealing to us the utilitarian walls and rigs audiences were never intended to see. Even the lighting grid is dramatically lowered into our sightlines shortly after the show begins, exposing the source of T.J. Gerckens’ lighting design.
The Stage Manager goes to great lengths to tell us about life in Grover’s Corners in the early 1900s when cars were rare and milk and newspapers were delivered to doorsteps. The cast is clothed in early 20th-century costumes by Mara Blumenfield, but are otherwise required to do the heavy lifting when it comes to painting a picture of the time and setting. They mime stringing beans, feeding chickens and eating meals around the table, aided by their fellow talent sitting alongside the stage, visibly clucking or tinkling bottles together as ambient sound effects.
Act I, in which our main characters go about an ordinary day, will lull you into a false sense of security. Some may find themselves teetering dangerously towards complacency or even apathy. Act II takes place during a wedding, which most will find more engaging. Act III looks back at that foundation the show built underneath us–and it doesn’t hesitate for a second before taking a sledgehammer to it.
“Our Town” uses Acts I and II like a teacher uses a creative activity to introduce students to a new topic. Act III is akin to that moment when the teacher reveals how the seemingly random activity is related to a greater lesson.
And what a lesson it is. So much so that it would be a disservice to CPH and future audience members to reveal it here: it deserves to be experienced as intended, lest the power of the message be dampened.
Director and Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman does not pull any punches; instead, she coordinates them with precision and a steady hand, ensuring that they land with force in just the right places.
A fine example of this is demonstrated within the performance of Christopher Donahue as the Stage Manager. Donahue is calm and matter-of-fact, making him a trusted, pragmatic narrator. His lines are often unembellished and his air is unattached. This gives his rare moments of stern condescension and disappointment greater gravity, and his delivery of Wilder’s lessons hefty weight.
The two families central to the story told by the Stage Manager are the Gibb and Webb families, the respective matriarchs of which are played by Louise Lamson and Derdriu Ring. Because their characters serve as the backbones of their households, Lamson and Ring are in constant movement, convincingly miming the baking, cooking, cleaning and maintenance that it takes to provide for their families. Both Lamson and Ring are accomplished, lauded actresses, and their performances here are fine testaments to their talents.
Less active in their characters’ households, but still delivering fine performances, are Steve Marvel as Doc Gibbs and Geoffrey Short as Mr. Webb. Marvel is stern and sensible, while Short is jovial and kind.
The eldest of the Webb children is Emily, played by Madalyn Baker, who serves as our main protagonist for the show. It is Emily who we watch grow up and discover the highs and lows of life. Baker is relatable in her innocence and expressive in her monologues. Her impassioned, emotional deliveries, especially during Act III, are equal parts touching and sorrowful.
The eldest of the Gibbs family is George, played by Byron Johnson. Johnson’s George is sweet and attentive, making him an endearing counterpart and love interest to Baker’s Emily. George’s kid sister is played by the young, talented Lennon Rosiar.
Other notable supporting roles are Adam Ortega as Howie Newsome, Brendan Lowry as Wally Webb and Wai Yim as Simon Stimson and Professor Willard.
CPH’s “Our Town” does not ask you to merely ponder Wilder’s lessons of life–it demands that you confront them head-on and in full force. To be humbled by a play is a truly interesting feeling, and it is a feeling well worth exploring first-hand at the Allen Theatre.
“Our Town” runs through Sept. 28 at Cleveland Play House in the Allen Theatre,1407 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. Tickets can be purchased by calling (216) 241-6000 or by visiting clevelandplayhouse.com, $36-$125.
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Gwendolyn Kochur
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