Review: VHS theater-makers discover the truths of ‘Our Town’
Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, December 9, 2025
“Our true life is in the imagination and in the memory,” wrote the great American dramatist Thornton Wilder in the preface to his masterpiece, “Our Town,” first performed in 1938.
The play — one that everyone who loves theater has at least some familiarity with — is deceptively simple in its premise. Set at the turn of the 20th century, it tells the story of two families in the mythical town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire — about their growing up, marrying, living and dying.
Simple, right? Yet, “Our Town” is neither sentimental nor even an artifact of a bygone time. And although the play is meant to make us laugh at times, the reason it has endured can be found in the soaring and brutal poetry of its serious message.
Set on a bare stage, without the comfort or clutter of a set or props, “Our Town” is a play that knows it is a play — one that shatters the imaginary “fourth wall” at the foot of the stage to speak directly to its audience, reminding us all of our tiny place in the vast cosmos that swirls around us.
It’s also a very hard play to get exactly right, which is why Vashon High School Theater program director Andy James is to be applauded for challenging Vashon High’s young theater-makers to rise to its rigors.
For the past several years, James has built a student-led theater program, advised by local professionals, that has resulted in a tight ensemble of young artists blossoming before our eyes in daring productions that have included Shakespeare plays and, most memorably, perhaps, last season’s triumphant musical, “Ride the Cyclone.”
“Our Town,” which opened last weekend and will return for two more performances on Dec. 12 and 13, is perhaps the biggest reach yet for the high school’s theater-makers, with several roles double-cast, with different actors performing them each weekend. Understudies to the two lead roles in the show also performed last Sunday.
The cast I saw last Saturday night delivered strong ensemble acting, especially in the heartbreaking performances of Whit Barnett and Gloria Erickson as George and Emily — starry-eyed teenagers who all too soon learn the devastating truth that great love can also spawn unimaginable grief.
Kudos also go to the trio of stage managers who ably narrated the play — Liam Waldron, Nyx Axley and Callia Brown. Together, they embodied the dry humor and ruthless efficiency of the all-knowing character, steering the play through its ever-deepening waters.
During the show, I found myself wishing I could have been a fly on the wall of rehearsals.
Did the students grasp that early 20th-century Grover’s Corner is a small town not unlike 21st-century Vashon — a place where many people find themselves tethered to roles lived out on a too-brightly lit small stage for all to see?
Just like Grover’s Corner, Vashon has its stock characters: lost souls, dutiful moms, distracted dads, town gossips and teenagers who fall head over heels in love — all trapped in the endless illusion of the eternal now.
Still, the character Emily asks in one of the play’s most heart-wrenching scenes, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”
Of course not. But masterworks like “Our Town” can at least give us a glimpse of our true place in the stars.
Bravo, Vashon High School students, for your work on this majestic play.
See the show at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 12 and 13, at Vashon High School Theater. Tickets, $12, can be purchased at the door, though no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
