THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9604300120
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 23 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
An impeccably crafted production of ``Our Town'' at Regent University has the feel of a sharply focused sepia tone photograph. More precisely, it is reminiscent of those modern studio shots that imitate old-fashioned portraits by dressing up the tourists of today in the costumes of yesteryear.
Thornton Wilder structured his script to reveal, and make artistic use of, the artifice behind all stage productions. A character known as the Stage Manager narrates, calling on inhabitants of Grover's Corners, N.H., to play out scenes from their lives. The play, spanning the years between 1901 and 1913, sets out to describe ``The way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the 20th century.''
A thin layer of artifice is also visible in the performances, though for once the awareness that one is watching an actor at work is entirely appropriate.
In the homes of Dr. Gibbs and his neighbor, Mr. Webb, and elsewhere in the small town, George Gibb and Emily Webb enact their touchingly brief love story.
We meet them when they are high school students who find in their math homework an excuse to call from window to window. The play ends 12 years later, with still young George, owner of a small farm and a father, prostrate on the grave of his wife who died in childbirth.
Wilder never says whether that second child survived the death of its mother, nor did he leave any hints about how George coped with the task of being a single father. The author's interest had shifted in the third act from the earthly plane to the eternal one, and the Regent production seems most at ease when those who have departed earthly life discuss their feelings about what they have left behind and the future for which they wait.
Tim Branson as George and Lori Steele as Emily were charming and believable in their roles. Branson projects an appealingly adolescent eagerness that gives the character a convincingly youthful charm. Steele manages the range from young teen to budding woman to nervous bride with extraordinary clarity.
Hunter Barnes is a strong presence on the stage, giving Dr. Gibbs a consciously Lincolnesque image. Michael Graves is less forceful as Mr. Webb, suggesting that this character is the more approachable of the two men.
Darian Jaynes and Michelle Hoppe, in the roles of Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb, are viewed as being less reserved than the men. Both actresses are completely at home in their characters.
James Frizzell delivered his performance as the troubled, alcoholic, choir master Simon Stimson with precision and special emotional impact. Every performance in the sizable cast is well-honed, distinctly delineated and worthy of attention.
The setting, almost as famous as the play itself, consists of two ladders, various tables and chairs and a couple of trellises. Darlene Graves directed, with an intelligent approach to the subtle distinctions between the characters that forms a foundation for the show's unity.
``Our Town'' remains a sentimental classic, whether one wishes to approach it as a reminiscent recreation of a lost world, a thoughtful musing on eternal prospects or a combination of the two. MEMO: ``Our Town,'' by Thornton Wilder, continues at 8 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, May 3, 4, 10 and 11, and 3 p.m. Sunday May 8 and 12 at Regent
University, 1000 Regent University Drive. Call 579-4245. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Tim Branson and Darian Jaynes are featured in ``Our Town.''
by CNB