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by Thornton Wilder, directed by Joseph Ziegler

Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre, Toronto

January 23-March 25, 2006

Soulpepper has made a fine start in its new home, the Young Centre in the Distillery District, with a revival of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.  Joseph Ziegler is again the director and the intimate 400-seat Baillie Theatre proves a wonderfully intimate venue.

On an empty stage with minimal props the Stage Manager, played, appropriately enough, by Soulpepper’s Artistic Director Albert Schultz, shows us everyday life, a wedding and a funeral in a small New Hampshire town in the early 20th century.  Ziegler’s production is notably unsentimental.  Right from the start Ziegler underlines in Schultz’s pointed narration and in the restraint of the acting the theme of human morality that makes the division of society into mutually distrustful classes, ethnic groups and religious factions all the more lamentable.  Emily (Martha MacIsaac) asks at the end why human beings go through their short lives “blind.”

Schultz’s performance is a masterpiece of understatement.  The scenes between George (Jeff Lillico) and Emily are beautifully judged.  If only Jane Spence and John Jarvis as Emily’s parents could conjure up as much familial warmth as do Nancy Palk and Oliver Dennis as George’s, then Emily’s one relived day would be much more devastating.  Still, Ziegler’s goal is not to provoke easy tears but sombre reflection.        

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-02-09.

Photo: Albert Schultz. ©Sandy Nicholson.