'The play praises small-town virtues, but it suggests a near-tragic counterpoint. However, it is hard to know the extent to which Wilder - the most erudite and cosmopolitan of writers - embraces, rather than probes, the simple verities that the denizens of Grover's Corners, most of them Republicans and Protestants, cling to,' Richman says. 'His play sets out to capture and appreciate the small, seemingly insignificant but actually wondrous moments of life, placing them against those immensities of space, time, and eternity. The three-act play is set in a town modeled after several New Hampshire towns in the Monadnock region, including Jaffrey, Peterborough, and Dublin. The play's final tableau, with a grief-stricken George prostrate at the feet of the Emily who is even now moving on beyond him, is as heartbreaking in 2008 as it was when it was first staged in 1938,' says Richman, a professor of theatre and dance.

The great ideas and emotions - love, wonder, the response to death - are always with us.

Seventy years later, the play by Thornton Wilder set in the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover's Corners remains one of the most frequently produced and most beloved plays in American theatrical history.Īccording to theater historian David Richman at the University of New Hampshire, the lasting popularity of 'Our Town' ' a summertime favorite among New England theatre groups ' can be attributed to Wilder's use of minimal scenery and props, the appeal of its ensemble cast and because it deals, at least in part, with nostalgia. Newswise - In January 1938, the play 'Our Town' made its debut in New Jersey.

1938 play by thornton wilder