Our Town

Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town, has a bad reputation of being a long, uneventful tragedy. Its easy to see why a lot of people miss the purpose and message behind the play, taking it for its face value as opposed to looking into the soul of it. The lack of any scenery and the unusual structure tend to cause a widespread distaste for Our Town, especially with high school students. It intentionally contains little action, …

…wants them to experience it. He does this by using the stage manager to connect to the audience, using humor to lighten the mood and finally eliminating the set so the message is clear. Our Town isn't a long, uneventful tragedy. Its a symbolic work of art meant to inspire its audience to live like Julius Caesar, who refused to foolishly squander his brief existence by living each moment as if it were his last.