Peter Viney's Blog

By Thornton Wilder

Directed by Francesca Goodridge
Creative Associate Russell T. Davies
Movement director Jess Williams
Designed by Hayley Grindle
Composer, Sound Design, MD – Dyfan Jones

The Welsh National Theatre production

The Rose Theatre, Kingston-on-Thames
Thursday 12th March 2026, 19.45

Running time: Approx. 2hrs 20mins, incl. interval
Act 1 & 2: 85 minutes – Interval: 20 minutes – Act 3: 35 minutes

CAST

Michael Sheen – Stage Manager

Rithvik Andugula- Howie Newsome
Peter Devlin- George Gibbs
Aisha-May Hunte – Wally Webb
Rebecca Killick- Rebecca Gibbs
Alfie Llewellyn – Joe & Si Crowell
Rhodri Meilir- Mr Webb
Christine Modestou – Mrs Soames
Kimberly Noble- ensemble
Yasemin Ozdemir – Emily Webb
Sian Reese-Williams – Mrs Gibbs
Nia Roberts – Mrs Webb
Kingdom Sibanda – Sam Craig
Gareth Snook- Professor Willard / Joe Stoddard
Gareth Tempest- ensemble
Jams Thomas – Constable Warren
Matthew Trevannion – Dr Gibbs
Rhys Warrington – Simon Stimson

Our Town is part of the small town genre of early 20th century American fiction, along with the short stories in Winesburg Ohio,by Sherwood Anderson, and the verse epitaphs in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. It was written in 1938, so later than the others.

I saw Our Town before I went to university, on a tiny black & white TV with a bare set and wooden chairs, and it fascinated me. I bought the Pengion edition. Four shillings and sixpence.

Because I’d done Drama subsidiary, everyone in the American Studies department assumed I would opt for the third year American Drama option. I re-read the Thornton Wilder, the Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller collections in Penguin Plays. I opted for American Slavery (History & Literature) instead. I loved Arthur Miller and still do. I was fascinated by Wilder, but definitely unsure about O’Neill. I don’t see A Long Day’s Journey Into Night nor Ah, Wilderness! as plays I want to see again. Edward Albee described Our Town as the greatest of all American plays. I didn’t agree at the time. However, previous actors in the play include Henry Fonda, then Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra (yes, together). After today, I admit Albee had a point, even if A View From The Bridge or The Crucible are my choices.

But I haven’t seen Our Town since that TV. That’s why we booked it, reinforced by Michael Sheen on Desert Island Discs. A note for the Rose website. It was never a ‘classic novel.‘

IIt launches the Michael Sheen originated National Theatre of Wales. The production started in Swansea, where some reviews were done. Why is the England transfer in Kingston-On-Thames not central London? First, it’s only 30 minutes from Waterloo on frequent overground trains. The Rose is a favourite theatre too. It has the shape and dimensions of the original Elizabethan Rose, near the Globe, but it has a roof, modern seating and lighting. It is a way better space than any of those 19th century West End theatres, so in terms of stage and facilities, it compares with The National Theatre or The Bridge Theatre. For some productions (not this) they replace the groundlings with people sitting on the floor. This was all seated, and it was full.

The play was first performed in 1938, and is set in 1901. It is set in a theatre, on 7th May 1901, and narrated and ordered by the Stage Manager. He comes on first and extinguishes the light always left on stage in empty theatres, then the cast come on.

The stage instructions are specific on time and place, Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, May 7th 1901.The co-ordinates for the Town that Wilder gives place it out in the Atlantic Ocean. This production retains American text and place names, but is National Theatre of Wales with Welsh actors, Welsh accents, and as you might expect some bloody good choral hymn singing. The mountain names become Welsh too. Speed and accent may talk a little adjustment time, even for me whose mother was Welsh. On the other hand there is something intimate and dare I say, homely, about a Welsh accent. Michael Sheen has the highest regard for Dylan Thomas, and Under Milk Wood has obvious parallels to this play. Michael Sheen has already done the stage version of Under Milk Wood , which can be seen on NT At Home.

It all works seamlessly. He combines gravitas with an avuncular sense, and he has a classic and powerful Welsh actor voice and delivery.

The play was a minimalist masterpiece. Thonton Wilder had chairs, then wheeled on two small trellises for ‘those who want scenery‘ and projected a slide of a stained glass window in the wedding scene. That was it. He was reacting against the elaborate sets of the era. Props were mimed.

Here though the set is bare, they have chairs, laddersand a number of planks, used to great effect, held by the cast, as walls, tables, church crosses, school desks. They add trolleys of corn (with peeping hands to show flowers as the text describes them), foliage at the back, a truly sublime lighting plot and a marvellous musical score, some of which is live piano in acts one and two.

The choreography of stage movement is a high point, culminating in an ensemble wedding dance to close act two. Jess Williams as Movement Director deserves prominent billing and a programme page. Movement of the cast was a major concern, and noted in the programme as a starting point. Sometimes a group of five or six move together in a slowed stylised dance like way. The planks are manipulated in rhythm. It never feels minimalist. In act three, Wilder’s plain bare chairs are replaced by very high stepladders for the graves. It is a great improvement.

Act one is 1901, Act two is 1904, and Act 3 is 1913, with a journey back to 1899.

The play follows two families, the Gibbs and the Webbs, centred on their children George Gibbs (Peter Devlln) and Emily Webb (Yasemin Ozdemir ). Perfrect casting.

In Act one they’re teenagers, shouting across between bedroom windows (on ladders surroundeby the townspeople).

Nia Roberts plays Mrs Webb and Rhodri Meilir plays Mr Webb.

Sian Reese-Williams is Mrs Gibbs, who will appear as Ma Gibbs in Act Three, seated among the dead. She is the one who explains the afterlife to Emily, who has died in childbirth.

Matthew Trevannion is Dr Gibbs. Part of the narration is asides looking foward to “now” (1938) so we find Dr Gibbs died in 1930 and the new hospital bears his name.

We encounter other town worthies, such as choir master Simon Stimson (Rhys Warrington). He is alchoholic snd gay and will hang himself. Wilder merely describes him as ‘troubled’ but it’s all there and this production brings it out.

In Act two George and Emily fall in love nd get married. A comic highlight is when Mr Webb has to give George, his prospective son-in-law, marital advice on the morning of his wedding. No plot spoilers. It’s fine comic writing. It’s all in the text which both handle extremely well. Christine Modestou plays Mrs Soames who loves weddings and always cries at them. The Welsh accent worked well on her lines. I had aunties like that.

The wedding dance is a magnificent full ensemble piece before the interval.

Act three is 1913 we are in the graveyard with the dead, includig George’s mother. Emily has just died. She wnts to go bsck and see a day in her life and chooses her 12th birthday. When we go back to 1899 for her birthday, props in this production are no longer mimed. We have a milk crate, laundry, a brush, wrapped birthday presents. Her dad (I nearly wrote ‘da’) has come back from a trip with a Gladstone bag, The surreal imagined return to life is presented as realer than the rest of the play.

It ends in blackness with twinkling stars.

It is a fine production, elaborating and reviving a fine play, a masterpiece of American theatre. Some reviews dropped from five stars citing sentimentality and sweetness. we all need a bit of that.

Overall an unequivocal five stars *****

PROGRAMME

The programme has the old RSC large format, the one the RSC foolishly abandoned. Good, it’ll go with the RSC ones on my shelf. I did smirk at the director Francesca Goodridge describing herself as a ‘Welsh working class theatre director.’ No, you’re not, Francesca. You could say ‘I grew up in a Welsh working class family’ but you are now Artistic Director of a new major company. You cast, so you hire and fire. On the A, B, C1, C2, D, E scale, C2 and D are working class. Like it or not you are Top Professional / Senior Management. That makes you A. It is a virtue signalling affectation to describe oneself as working class, even when you are a cabinet minister or an international acting star. Not only are you a director, but with this production, probably one of the very best of this year.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

five star
Financial Times *****
Metro *****

four star
The Times ****
Telegraph ****
Daily Mail ****
The Stage ****
What’s on Stage ****
Daily Express ****
Andrez Lukowski, Time Out ****
Louis Chilton, Independent ****
Nick Curtis, The Standard ****
Olivia Garrett, Radio Times ****

three star
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

MICHAEL SHEEN
Hamlet , Young Vic 2011 (Hamlet)
Far From The Madding Crowd (2015 film)
How To Build A Girl (2020 film)
Passengers (film)