[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of A Noise Within’s The Skin of Our Teeth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, time-bending comic romp by Thornton Wilder directed by co-artistic directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliot.
The timing of A Nose Within’s production of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth is almost supernatural, given the unrelenting chaos in the world right now. It was written after World War II, to remind us all that no matter the depth of the darkness that surrounds us, we could all pull through if we all pull together. A useful sentiment of course, although we can all be forgiven for feeling the weight of the irony of this in our own troubled country in recent years…
However, I believe that art can save us all…if only by distracting us long enough to ignore, step over and wade through the messy stuff. Thornton Wilder did something better though, he took a long hard look at what lay in withering pieces all around him and built upon it.
The Skin of Our Teeth follows the Antrobus family as they navigate several natural disasters and a terrible war, seemingly to end all wars. They present as the perfect collection of souls. Mother, father, son and daughter. And a maid, who we discover has been a wife, or could be to Mr Antrobus, with whom she is still enamoured. At least at first. It is a play in three acts set over three ages, the first act begins as the Antrobus’s are celebrating their 5,000th wedding anniversary…
Each of the acts places the family in life-threatening extremes and allowing them to forge their own treacherous path forward. Always inspiring others, always surviving, always finding the humanity in the ice or the fire or the flood. The war seems to push them to their ultimate limits though, when their always difficult and more than slightly psychotic son becomes the face of evil. It’s very biblical. Man made disasters, dividing humanity rather than uniting us against a common enemy do always devastate in tragically far more soul destroying ways than natural ones.
The Skin of our Teeth is so radical, so twisted around and pulled a part as a traditional play that it becomes hard to describe without giving it all away.
Suffice it to say that several walls are broken, every rule thrown out, and the glue that holds it all together is the utter brilliance of the words and the fortitude and extraordinary talent of the company and crew of A Noise Within.
The chaos is of course the point. The delight of this gorgeously staged and thrilling theatrical event is in the whimsy and the satire and the lesson. We have no one to rely on but ourselves. Even when our fellow man is the enemy, we must remember his humanity…as well as remember our own.
What a fantastical play this is and who but the phenomenal A Noise Within could do this iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning opus justice! The cast is, as always, is outrageously good. The elaborate staging, the design, the costumes, from dinosaur to wooly mammoth to retro-futuristic costumes all ingenious, vivid poignant delights.
The audience around me was just as enraptured as I and just as incredulous at times, when we weren’t exactly sure if we were watching a play, inside a play or if indeed there was a play happening at all. But you will have to see it to believe it…and I highly recommend that you do.
The Skin of our Teeth isn’t just timely it’s almost essential! Where else could you go to feel like everyone else is experiencing this same lunatic timeline with the same fear, panic and white-knuckle exhilaration as you?Â
The Skin of Our Teeth is playing until the end of the month, if we all make it that far, and I urge you to go and experience what may well be the one and only time you will see this astonishing play. It is a masterpiece of satire and magical realism and it takes real genius to even attempt to stage it…aren’t we lucky to have this wonderful innovative company in our midst.
When:
Through September 29
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. (dark Thursday, September 12)
Where:
A Noise Within
3352 E Foothill Blvd, Pasadena