Act I provides the exposition, setting, and characters through direct descriptions and scenes acted out by players. The town is said to have been inhabited by the same families since the first settlers in the early 1600s, and the Stage Manager describes it as ordinary and unremarkable. There is a repetitive nature to life in the town and a sense that each day is relatively the same.
Other town characters, such as the milkman, paperboy, choir ladies, and more, are also introduced. Each family has two children, they live next door to one another, and the mothers are best friends. The audience sees the Gibbs and Webb families going about their day, sending their children off to school while the men work and the women tend the house. All of the play’s characters are presented here as the Stage Manager, who narrates the play, explains their origins, their purpose in the town, and whether or not they have since died. The edition used for this guide is the Harper Perennial Modern Classics Edition paperback reissue from 2003.Īct I takes place in 1901 and is titled “Daily Life.” The entire play is set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, where nothing remarkable seems to happen. It brings to light themes of the simplicity of American life, appreciation of life while one has it, the importance of love and family, and the cyclical nature of humanity. Our Town is centered on the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, a town like any other, between 19. Audiences were no longer required to use their imaginations. Wilder saw an increasing reliance on props and scenery that he believed obscured the raw themes and characters that theater traditionally offered. It serves as Wilder’s statement on what he believed to be the disappointing direction that theater had taken. Our Town stands out among other plays because it is metatheatrical.
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