Criticism > Drama Criticism > Our Town, Thornton Wilder - Malcolm Johnson (review date 23 July 1994)
Our Town, Thornton Wilder - Malcolm Johnson (review date 23 July 1994)
Malcolm Johnson (review date 23 July 1994)
SOURCE: Johnson, Malcolm. “Acting Lapses Undercut This Our Town Revival.” Hartford Courant (23 July 1994): D8.
[In the following review of the Williamstown Theater Festival production of Our Town at Williams College, Johnson describes Wilder's play as an essential American play that has endured the test of time. He criticizes this production, however, for undermining the strengths of the play through poor acting.]
Even in a less than perfect revival, Thornton Wilder's Our Town remains the essential American play, a sentimental yet thoughtful and philosophical look back to the innocent opposite end of our century.
Peter Hunt, the gifted artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, would seem an ideal choice to stage Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play. Since taking command of the prestigious summer operation on the campus of Williams College, Hunt...
[The entire page is 724 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
- Introduction
- Principal Works
- Criticism: Author Commentary
-
Criticism: Our Town (1938)
- Hap Erstein (review date 23 November 1990)
- T. H. McCulloh (review date 2 April 1993)
- Malcolm Johnson (review date 23 July 1994)
- T. H. McCulloh (review date 9 December 1995)
- Critical Commentary
- Arthur H. Ballet (essay date 1956)
- Francis Fergusson (essay date 1956)
- George D. Stephens (essay date February 1959)
- Helmut Papajewski (essay date 1961)
- Winfield Townley Scott (essay date 1961)
- Malcolm Goldstein (essay date 1965)
- Donald Haberman (essay date 1967)
- Jan Austell (essay date 1968)
- Michael A. D'Ambrosio (essay date October 1971)
- John V. Hagopian and Arvin R. Wells (essay date 1971)
- Donald Haberman (essay date 1996)
- Bert Cardullo (essay date September 1998)
- Further Reading
- Copyright
